Mærsk files lawsuit against Glencore
The shipping giant filed a lawsuit against commodities trader Glencore seeking damages for an off-spec fuel deal.
By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent
NEW YORK CITY — AP Møller – Mærsk A/S, one of the world’s largest shipping liners, sued Glencore, a commodities trader, for $6 million in damages brought on by a fuel deal gone bad.
According to a court filing from the beginning of this month, Mærsk completed a fuel swap with Glencore for about 24,000 barrels of marine fuel to be supplied to the company through a subsidiary in Panama.
This took place in February of 2018, with the fuel being loaded aboard the Mærsk Aras.
Two days after the vessel began using the fuel from Glencore, the Aras began suffering from severe engine failure that forced her to divert to a port of refuge in Mexico for repairs and to load replacement fuel.
The Maritime Executive reports that another containership owned by Mærsk experienced a fuel pump failure and then a main engine failure using the same fuel mixtures from the same shipment.
The vessel, the Sofie Mærsk, had to be towed to Hawaii for repairs and to load new fuel. The lawsuit is filed before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
