The Hoegh Osaka car transporter vessel began to list shortly after leaving the Port of Southampton on Saturday. The captain opted to run it aground off the Isle of Wight to prevent it capsizing. As well as the 1,400 cars on board, there are also millions of pounds-worth of British made construction machinery bound for the Middle East.
JCB has confirmed that there are 105 machines made at its Staffordshire factories on board the Hoegh Osaka. These 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 have already been sold to dealers in the Middle East.
A JCB spokesman said: "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."
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