Maersk Honam Docks in Jebel Ali Nearly Three Months After Fire

The fire-stricken containership Maersk Honam has now berthed at the Port of Jebel Ali where cargo discharge operations are now underway nearly three months after a major fire broke out on board the vessel.

Maersk Line confirmed in a statement to gCaptain that the Maersk Honam berth on Sunday, May 27.

The discharge operations for all undamaged cargo have commenced and are estimated to last approximately four to six days, Maersk said.

“The condition of the vessel will be further evaluated. As things stand it is our intention to repair the vessel,” Maersk added.

The 353-meter Maersk Honam, an ultra-large container ship (ULCS), caught fire on March 6 in the Arabian Sea en route to the Mediterranean Sea, via the Suez Canal. The incident claimed the lives of five crew members.

According to Maersk, the ship was carrying a total of 7,860 containers, corresponding to 12,416 twenty-foot equivalent units, when it caught fire. 

All cargo in the forward holds 1-3 have been declared a total loss, but containers aft of the ship’s superstructure went largely undamaged.

The cargo loss forced Maersk to declare general average on 9 March and the company appointed Liverpool-based average adjuster Richards Hogg Lindley to collect the necessary GA security. The basic concept of GA is that all losses, including salvage, port, and transfer costs, are shared between surviving cargo.

Adjuster Richards Hogg Lindley has set the salvage security to the amount of 42.5% of the CIF (cost, insurance and freight) value of the cargo, with an additional 11.5% required as GA security.

The Singapore-flagged Maersk Honam was delivered in 2017 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. It has a nominal capacity of 15,262 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit).

Source: gcaptain