Maersk containership arrested in Tunisia; Tunisia hits Maersk defending small ones

Maersk containership arrested in Tunisia
Chris Dupin |September 21, 2018 https://www.americanshipper.com/main/full/maersk-containership-arrested-...

The vessel gave asylum to 113 refugees when it was en route from Malta to Libya in June.

Maersk Line said that one of its ships, the Alexander Maersk, was detained in the Port of Sfax, Tunisia, on Sept. 10.
“This is related to different claims cases which we are looking into and have informed our insurance company about. We cooperate with all relevant authorities to resolve the matter as quickly as possible,” said Maersk.

The website Shipping Watch said that the arrest was made on behalf of shippers which “claim to have lost money on the Maersk Honam fire.”

The Alexander Maersk is a Danish flagged container vessel built in 1998. It has a nominal container capacity of 1068 TEU. It is deployed on a Seago Line service in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The same ship was in the news earlier in this year when it rescued more than 100 maritime migrants and had to wait three days off of Sicily before being allowed to come to port and let the migrants disembark.

Tunisia hits Maersk defending small ones
Mikhail Voytenko September 22, 2018 https://maritimebulletin.net/2018/09/22/tunisia-hits-maersk-defending-sm...

Maersk Line confirmed detention of one of its’ ships, ALEXANDER MAERSK, at Sfax, Tunisia, on Sep 10:
“This is related to different claims cases which we are looking into and have informed our insurance company about. We cooperate with all relevant authorities to resolve the matter as quickly as possible,” said Maersk.
According to Tunisian sources, the ship was arrested in favor of Tunisian shippers claims on losses they suffered in container ship MAERSK HONAM major fire http://maritimebulletin.net/2018/05/18/robem-all-maersk-honam-predictabl...
This incident, if becoming precedent, may be quite a turn in a war between small shippers and big guys like Maersk, unleashing every time there’s major accident, which called for General Average. Small shippers suffer heavy losses, which are often topping cargo loss, with a near-zero chance of justice and compensation. Whatever will be the outcome, Maersk is already suffering losses and probably, will have to compromise and compensate Tunisian shippers their losses. Tunisian unexpected move may be conveniently called as a sustainable, innovative and culturally diverse response, if switching to modern media terminology.

Quite a number of Middle East and probably, Asian countries, my follow the lead and defend their small ones in the same manner. Maybe there’s justice somewhere, sometime, after all.
ALEXANDER MAERSK is off AIS monitoring since Sep 19.

First news:
MAERSK container ship reported arrested in Tunisia
September 20, 2018

Container ship ALEXANDER MAERSK reportedly arrested in Sfax, Tunisia. The ship docked at Sfax on Sep 8, on arrival from Malta. No other information available. In recent months, the ship called Sfax twice, first call in August also being unusually long, lasting 9 days.

Container ship ALEXANDER MAERSK, IMO 9164237, dwt 17526, capacity 1092 TEU, built 1998, flag Denmark, manager Maersk Line.