Eco-Levant

On Feb 11, 2026, at 10:02 p.m., the "Eco Levant", en route from Kotka to Rotterdam, allided with the side wall of the new southern lock of the Kiel-Canal in Kiel-Holtenau, while entering the lock. There was only minor damage caused to the masonry and the ship. The new southern lock was taken out of service, while the incident was investigated. On Feb 12 at 1:02 a.m., the ship was able to continue its journey to Brunsbüttel, and the lock has been operational again since then. This came only a few weeks after the last incident in the Kiel Canal on Jan 16, when the ship suffered an engine failure and got stuck in the embankment of the Kiel Canal.

On Jan 16, 2025, at 01:02 a.m. the 'Eco Levant', en route from Antwerp towards Kiel, suffered an engine failure during the eastbound transit of the Kiel Canal and veered off course at Breiholz. The ship got sutck on the northern embankment near the pilot station in Rüstersbergen (Lat. 54.2386 Lng. 9.6088). The tug 'Holtenau' (IMO: 8200321) was mobilized from Kiel before 2 a.m, and the tug 'Fairplay 66' (IMO: 9036258) left Brunsbüttel at around 4 a.m. UTC, but could be stood down once the ship was floating again and returned to its base. The canal was completely closed after the grounding and the canal authority was not even letting any ships enter. 20 ships were affected during their canal transit and stopped their respective voyages on both sides of the incident site. At 8 a.m. the 'Eco Levant' could be refloated by the 'Holtenau' and berthed in the heavy load port of Rendsburg-Osterrönfeld at 9.20 a.m., where officers of the water police boarded the ship for further investigations. It continued the voyage the same night at 10 p.m. after repairs to the technical defect of the hydraulic system and the re-confirmation of its class by the monitoring classification society DNVGL with an ETA at the port of destination as of Jan 19. Reports, photos and video: https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/NOK-Containerschiff-bei-Breiholz-in-Boeschung-gelaufen,containerschiff560.html https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/schleswigholstein/ndr-nok-containerschiff-bei-breiholz-in-boeschung-gelaufen-100.html https://lomazoma.com/nord-ostsee-kanal-schiff-in-uferboeschung-getrieben/ https://www.mopo.de/im-norden/schleswig-holstein/havarie-im-norden-containerriese-stellt-sich-auf-kanal-quer-vollsperrung/ https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/3799247?navList=gallery&category=39&page=1&viewType=normal&sortBy=newest https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/3799246?navList=gallery&category=39&page=1&viewType=normal&sortBy=newest