Maersk Declares General Average After Container Fire Aboard Marie Maersk

 

The containership Marie Maersk is still making its way to Malaysia after fighting a box fire, and now the carrier reports it has declared General Average. Maersk is using the well-established law to share the cost of the firefight, which required bringing in additional resources but appears to have limited the scope of damage to the vessel and its cargo.

The carrier has not provided details on the extent of the damage on the vessel, which carries over 19,000 TEU. Pictures from one of the supply vessels that aided the Marie Maersk while it was off the coast of Africa did not show fire damage. Maersk had previously said that the full extent of the damage would only be known once the boxes were offloaded and inspected.

“We have declared General Average (GA) and have already asked affected cargo owners/customers to submit the respective securities for a fast cargo release,” a company spokesperson told The Maritime Executive. 

Cargo claims consultant WK Webster is informing customers that it believes Maersk intends to discharge the entire cargo of the vessel in Malaysia. The ship had been scheduled to proceed to China. Webster advises that General Average security will be required from all cargo interests before the delivery of their cargo. It has cargo surveyors standing by and fire experts to investigate the cause of the fire.

Maersk reported that the crew of the ship spotted smoke on August 13 and began firefighting procedures. They were working to keep the situation under control while external firefighting support was being organized. Initially, two tugboats with firefighting equipment reached the ship off Liberia, and within days, they reported the spread of the fire had been contained. An expert firefighting team boarded the vessel on August 19, and the decision was then made to resume the voyage.

The ship is expected to arrive at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia with the current ETA of September 14. Maersk and the insurance companies are planning an investigation into the cause of the fire.

While the causes of the fire on the Maersk ship are still unknown, the dangers of mis-declared and improperly packed cargo were highlighted in a new report from the World Shipping Council. Analyzing data from port state inspections in seven locations, the trade group reported inspectors had identified problems in 11.39 percent of containers (8,850 containers out of 77,688 inspected). The most frequent issues were with documentation, placarding, and labeling, but they also reported issues in about a third of the cases with stowage or securing freight in the containers, as well as a smaller number of cases of inappropriate or damaged packaging.