They confirmed all crew were accounted for but did not disclose how many people the Dali was carrying when it collided with the bridge.
Shipping giant Maersk confirmed they had chartered the ship to carry its cargo to Sri Lanka.
In a statement issued after the crash, the company said: “We are horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected.”
The Dali was built by the South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries and took its maiden journey in 2015.
The following year it was involved in a minor incident after hitting a stone wall at the port of Antwerp in The Netherlands.
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It was not immediately clear what caused the cargo ship to crash into the bridge long before the busy morning commute in what one official called a “developing mass casualty event” in a major American city just outside of Washington.
The ship crashed into one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to snap and buckle at several points and tumble into the water in a matter of seconds — a shocking spectacle that was captured on video and posted on social media.
The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the crash “an unthinkable tragedy,” adding: “Never would you think that you would see, physically see, the Key Bridge tumble down like that. It looked like something out of an action movie.”
Sonar has indicated that there are vehicles in the water, where the temperature was about 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) in the early hours of Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
