Swedish and German vessels join Danish frigate monitoring Chinese bulker linked to cable ruptures

Swedish and German vessels have joined a Danish frigate in keeping an eye on the Yi Peng 3, a 23-year-old panamax bulk carrier owned by Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, linked to the severing of two data cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month.

The ship departed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga heading to Port Said in Egypt nine days ago with its route tracking passing over both the Swedish-Lithuanian and Finnish-German fibre-optic cables around the time each was cut.

The ship has been at anchor at the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden for the past five days with a German patrol boat and Swedish Coast Guard ship now joining a Danish frigate keeping close proximity to the bulk carrier.

A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Finland and Germany last week stated: “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”

German defence minister Boris Pistorius commented last week, “No one believes that these cables were cut by accident. I also don’t subscribe to theories suggesting that ship anchors caused the damage to the cables.”

Danish TV channel DR sent a drone to survey the ship last week, showing images of how one of the bulk carrier’s anchors had become mangled. 

Meanwhile, Finnish journalists from the news outlet Helsingin Sanomat tried to visit the physical offices of the registered owner of the vessel, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, in China only to find that the address was empty and the area had been branded a military management zone.

The Danish military has been reticent to comment on whether the vessel has actually been detained, something that could spark controversy as it is in international waters. 

Commenting on the situation, Lars Jensen, who heads up Danish shipping consultancy Vespucci Maritime, wrote on LinkedIn: “As I see the situation this is yet another example of the increasing geopolitical tensions which are impacting the global shipping industry. It should not be seen as a single isolated incident but as part of a broader escalating global problem where commercial shipping interests are increasingly intertwined with geopolitical action.”

In October last year, a communication cable between Sweden and Estonia and a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia suffered damage caused by the Chinese-controlled NewNew Polar Bear containership.