Dutch manager ASM Maritime has barred its ships from using the Needles Channel off the UK following a grounding last year.

The 17,100-dwt Liberia-flag chemical tanker Chem Alya (built 2009) got stuck on 25 October last year.

The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said the vessel departed from the buoyed channel and grounded on the Shingles Bank while heading from Fawey to Alexandria in Egypt.