Maersk Essen reaches Lazaro Cardenas anchorage after container spill

The Neopanamax boxship Maersk Essen, which lost about 750 containers in the North Pacific earlier this month, has reached the port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico.

The 13,092 TEU vessel arrived at the APM Terminals Lazaro Cardenas berth on late 26 January, the ship’s AIS data from VesselsValue shows.

“It is understood that the vessel may not berth until 30 January whereupon cargo operations can commence. These operations are expected to take several weeks to complete given the complexity and dangers involved,” WK Webster, a provider of marine claims management services, said in a statement.

“The plan is to inspect the vessel and any damaged cargo onboard and then determine cargo options,” Danish shipping major Maersk, the vessel’s commercial controller, said in a separate update.

As informed, there are several routing scenarios to be decided upon. One of them is that the damaged containers will be offloaded and that the ship will proceed to Los Angeles, California, for normal discharge operations.

“The intention remains for the Maersk Essen to then call Los Angeles to deliver the cargo that is unaffected,” the company noted on 22 January.

To remind, the 2010-built Denmark-flagged containership lost containers in rough weather while en route from Xiamen, China, to Los Angeles on 16 January.

WK Webster recently shared a drone footage of the Maersk Essen, showing extensive damage following the loss of about 750 containers. However, the company removed the footage after receiving a request from Maersk.

Maersk Essen is owned by China’s Bank of Communications and deployed in Maersk’s TP6 Asia/US West Coast service.