One of Maersk Line’s operated ships has resumed its voyage after catching fire on 9 November.
The 2012-built 4,662 TEU Rhine Maersk, deployed to the Danish carrier’s WAF3 West Africa service, was sailing from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to Spain’s Algeciras port when the crew reported smoke coming from one of the containers onboard the vessel.
Other media reports suggested that five containers carrying charcoal or coal had self-heated, causing fires.
A spokesperson for Maersk told Container News: “The crew was safe, and the vessel was in stable condition, with all machinery, steering and navigational equipment fully operational. After detecting the smoke, the crew acted swiftly and followed all necessary safety and firefighting procedures to keep the situation under control.”
S&P Global data shows that the legal owner of Rhine Maersk is Sea 55 Leasing, a Hong Kong-incorporated entity of CMB Financial Leasing, the leasing unit of China Merchants Bank. The data suggests that Maersk acquired the ship in 2018 through a leasing agreement with CMB.
Rhine Maersk diverted to Tenerife, another Spanish port, and arrived on the morning of 10 November. Port personnel extinguished the fire by injecting water into the affected containers and worked to cool nearby containers. No further firefighting efforts were needed. On 13 November, Rhine Maersk departed Tenerife for Morocco’s Tangier port.
The Maersk spokesperson added: “The few affected containers have been discharged (in Tenerife) already, and once the onboard assessment is completed, and the vessel is deemed fit to sail, so it will resume its voyage to Port Tangier Med.”
The carriage of charcoal has been identified as the cause of 70 boxship fires between January 2015 and December 2022, according to guidelines published by the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS), an initiative created by the container shipping industry, in October.
The International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code is being amended to require charcoal to be declared and transported in compliance with the requirements set out in the code.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
