Fire on Maersk Honam: Salvage Operation Update

We refer to our previous communications in respect of the fire onboard the vessel “Maersk Honam” 806W.

Maersk Honam’s current position is 22° 46.0’N 063° 11.5’E, which is halfway between Muscat and Karachi, in the northern Arabian Sea.

The vessel is still being towed to anchor at Jebel Ali, where cargo will be off-loaded.

The firefighting and cooling operations are ongoing, with various hotspots remaining. 

We will only be able to clarify the situation once the cargo has been discharged and inspected but we can now provide to the owners of cargoes that were stored in the holds 1 to 3 some certificate of total loss if requested. MSC is providing you with draft wording of such a certificate in a separate document for your easy reference.

For the other cargoes, insurers should prepare the required GA and Salvage security bonds (when supplied by the General Average Adjusters), as those documents will be essential for the cargoes to reach their final destinations and be released under General Average.

As the salvage operations are still ongoing, the General Adjuster is not yet in position to finalise his request for Salvage security bonds, but we will relay them to you as soon as known.