Millions of pounds worth of JLR and JCB products on stricken container ship

MILLIONS of pounds worth of luxury cars and construction equipment manufactured in the West Midlands is amongst the cargo stranded on board the stricken container ship forced to breach in the Solent.

Jaguar Land Rover has revealed that 1,200 of its vehicles destined for the Middle East are on board the Hoegh Osaka, while excavator manufacturer JCB has said 105 of its machines also form part of the cargo.

Neither has revealed the full cost of the cargo but estimates place the value of the cars at somewhere between £35m to £100m. In addition to the JLR vehicles, there are also 65 Minis on board the ship plus a £260,000 Rolls-Royce Wraith.

The 50,000-tonne vessel is operated by Norway-based Höegh Autoliners and is registered in Singapore. The 25-strong crew were rescued after the ship ran into trouble on Saturday night in the Solent between Southampton and the Isle of Wight.

Salvage experts are trying to assess the scale of the operation needed to refloat the ship but with strong winds forecast the task could be difficult. There is no word on the condition of the cargo.

A spokesman for Staffordshire-based JCB said there were 105of its machines on board the ship and they were valued in the millions. They include 50-tonne and 33-tonne JCB tracked excavators. Also on board are backhoe loaders, Loadall telescopic handlers, wheeled loading shovels and Teletruk forklifts. All the machines are made at JCB’s Staffordshire factories.

“There are 105 JCB machines on board the grounded cargo ship which were destined for dealers in the Middle East. We are awaiting further information from the shipping carrier about the current status of the machines and any plans they may have for retrieval,” he said.

The machines are owned by JCB’s dealers in the Middle East, the region they were being shipped to.