Naples port, mystery ship at anchor

Naples - The odyssey of the Hanjin Athens, the 5,000 TEU container ship, is still ongoing. The ship stopped at the port of Limassol in Cyprus, but it stayed there until mid-June, following an alleged fire. The fire is said to have occurred on May 6th south of Suez. The ship, that is part of the service Far East –Mediterranean of the CKYH alliance, left Cyprus ten days ago after a month’s stay and got to Naples on July 18th. Since that day, the ship has remained at anchor waiting for appraisal procedures. These procedures are carried out when there are damages to on-board cargo and are required by the owner of the ship (in the case of the Athens it is Croce Conti from Hamburg) to secure the recovery of the costs incurred. It seemed that after leaving Limassol everything had been resolved, and the recipients were expecting the delivery of their containers in Naples on July 18th. Instead the ship has not approached the dock yet and is currently at anchor between Ischia and Capri.

“On board the ship,” says Antonio Arigliano, a small entrepreneur from Brindisi who’s waiting for the ship as many others, “ I have a container full of agricultural machinery. These were products that I had put on sale on my website and were already sold, because I had expected the delivery by May 10th. We have had to apologize to the customers”. Arigliano is moving heaven and earth to know when he will be able to pick up the merchandise, which has not been damaged by the fire. He first contacted his forwarding agent, then the Italian shipping company that handles the ship, and finally the European headquarters of the shipping company in Hamburg, but all to no avail. The ball is now in hands of a damages investigator, who is trying to guarantee the interest of the ship owner, as well as the cargo owners, by collecting guarantees on the cargo to avoid any seizure from the court that could block the goods indefinitely. But receivers like Antonio Arigliano are not able to get detailed information. Alfredo Berritto, from the law firm E. Morace in Naples who is representing some receivers, says: “The information is vague. Nobody has told us how things stand. We know there has been an alleged fire in hold number 2. There is an ongoing discussion between the owner and the carrier. The situation has stalled. The investigator is vague about the extent of the damage, but in my opinion the lengthy process indicates it was a massive event.”

Anyway, the affected parties are hoping the investigator (the Rudek office from Hamburg, which in turn has appointed as its agent in the field the agency Albatros from Limassol) finishes his work quickly. Then, the ship will be able to enter the Naples port and unload the cargo. Otherwise, if the wait becomes too long, the owners of the goods may start legal action. The Athens departed Pusan and at the time of the fire it was following the route Shanghai, Nignbo, Hong Kong, Yantian and Singapore straight to Port Said, Naples, Livorno and La Spezia. Hold number 2 was flooded by water in order to extinguish the fire. The fire was extinguished but at least 200 containers were damaged. That same day, the Athens arrived at Limassol where the damage was assessed.