HMM Platinum fire: salvage and general average loom for 2,300 boxes

HMM Platinum fire: 2,300 boxes, a salvage claim and a general average bill for every shipper on board
A fire on the container ship HMM Platinum has left around 2,300 containers stuck at sea off southern Africa. The 5,593 teu ship (teu: twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard box measure) was sailing from Kattupalli in India to Santos in Brazil. The fire reportedly started in a container off southern Madagascar. The ship is now looking for a port of refuge in South Africa, Splash247 reported on 10 October.
Our view is simple. For most shippers with cargo on this ship, the fire itself is not the main problem. The main problem is money and time. Salvage and general average will put a bill on every box on board, burnt or not. Shippers without cargo insurance are the most exposed, and forwarders will be the ones fielding their calls.

What we know so far

The facts are still thin, but the main points are on record.
The ship is Liberia-flagged, 52,467 gross tonnes, built in 2013, according to a casualty notice from claims specialist W.E. Cox Claims Group dated 8 October. That notice says “we understand that she is carrying around 2,300 containers and that damages are likely to be significant.”
Professional salvors have been hired. W.E. Cox says: “We also understand that professional Salvors (at SMIT) have been engaged on LOF terms and that GA will likely be declared.” LOF is Lloyd’s Open Form, the standard international salvage contract. Under it, the salvor gets to work straight away and its reward is settled later, based largely on the value of what it saves. That reward is shared between ship and cargo.
The route to safety has changed. Splash247 says the ship was first expected to divert to Durban, arriving 8 October. That plan has been dropped. Alternatives are being explored, with Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) named as a possible port of refuge. A port of refuge is simply a place where a damaged ship can shelter, put out the fire fully and be assessed.
The cargo mix matters. Splash247 cites P&I correspondent WK Webster, which places the fire off Lavanono, near Madagascar’s southern tip, and says some of the cargo is temperature-sensitive. That means reefer boxes (refrigerated containers) are on board, and every extra day at sea raises the risk that they spoil.
We do not yet know what caused the fire, how many boxes are damaged, or exactly where the ship will end up. Nobody has published those details.

How general average works

General average, or GA, is one of the oldest rules in shipping. The idea is that when the ship or its owner makes an extraordinary sacrifice or spends extraordinary money to save the whole voyage, everyone with property on board shares the cost.
Law firm Norton Rose Fulbright explains it this way: the principle applies where “a shipowner has incurred extraordinary expenditure to preserve maritime property.” Ship and cargo interests then contribute “on a proportional basis.” In plain terms, your share depends on the value of your cargo compared with the total value saved.
This is what catches shippers out. It does not matter if your container was at the far end of the ship and never touched by smoke. If GA is declared, your cargo is part of what was saved, so it pays.
The carrier has a lever to make sure it gets paid. It can hold the cargo until the owner provides security. W.E. Cox puts it directly: “Cargo interests will need to provide Salvage Security (and likely GA Security)” before cargo is onshipped or released at destination. Security usually means a GA bond, plus either an insurer’s guarantee or a cash deposit.
Insured shippers have it easier. Their cargo insurer usually signs a guarantee and the cargo moves. Uninsured shippers have to put up cash.
It helps to keep the two claims apart. Salvage is what SMIT will be paid for saving ship and cargo. GA covers the shipowner’s own extraordinary costs, such as the diversion, port of refuge charges and unloading and reloading cargo. They are calculated separately and secured separately. In the Maersk Honam case below, they were set as two separate percentages and then added together. A shipper who budgets for one and forgets the other will be short.
The final bill takes a long time. Norton Rose Fulbright notes that a GA adjustment, the formal calculation of who owes what, “can take up to 10 years to finalise.”

What happened last time

Two past fires give a sense of the numbers.
The first is close to home for this case. In February 2017, the APL Austria, also a Liberia-flagged container ship, “caught fire off the Eastern Cape of South Africa,” according to Norton Rose Fulbright. It went into the Port of Ngqura, near Gqeberha, and firefighting took several days. The GA cash deposit for uninsured cargo “has been set at 28% of the invoice value of the cargo,” the firm wrote at the time.
The second is the worst-case benchmark. In 2018, the Maersk Honam caught fire at sea. Supply Chain Dive reported that the ship carried 7,860 containers and that five crew members died. Salvage security was set at 42.5% of cargo value, “with an additional 11.5% as a general average deposit.” The result: “the shipper must pay 54% of the cargo value to have the cargo released.”
Today’s broader data says these numbers are not unusual. Allianz Commercial’s Safety and Shipping Review 2026, as reported by gCaptain, says GA contributions can reach “as much as 50% of cargo value.” Citing data from the same review, the World Shipping Council says a container ship fire now occurs “somewhere in the world roughly every 17 days.” Allianz recorded “more than 200 fire incidents involving vessels in 2025.”
Allianz names misdeclared hazardous cargo as a leading cause of container ship fires, SWZ|Maritime reports. Joe Kramek, president and CEO of the World Shipping Council, put it bluntly: “This is not a paperwork issue. It is a life-and-death safety issue.” We do not know whether misdeclared cargo played any part on the HMM Platinum. But the frequency figures tell forwarders that this is a routine risk, not a freak event.

What this means for forwarders and shippers

Here is our reading of what comes next for anyone with cargo on board.
Find your boxes first. Check bookings on India to East Coast South America services, and any cargo routed via Santos for onward delivery. Customers will ask before the carrier tells them.
Call the cargo insurers now. Where cargo is insured, the insurer will usually handle salvage and GA security. Getting the paperwork started early is the difference between cargo moving when the ship is released and cargo sitting in a yard.
Warn uninsured customers today. If the Maersk Honam and APL Austria cases are a guide, an uninsured shipper could be asked for a cash deposit of somewhere between about a quarter and just over half of the cargo’s value. That is our estimate based on those cases, not a published figure for this ship. For a small importer, that can be more than the margin on the whole shipment.
Plan for the reefers. Temperature-sensitive cargo is the most likely to become a total loss. Shippers should check with insurers whether delay and spoilage are covered under their policy terms.
Expect onward costs. In the Maersk Honam case, Supply Chain Dive reported that MSC planned to charge “$750 per 20 feet or $1,250 per 40 feet” for extra transport, storage and port costs for undamaged cargo. If the HMM Platinum’s cargo has to be discharged in South Africa and reloaded onto other ships, similar charges are likely here too. That is our expectation, not something HMM has announced.
Watch Santos inventory. Brazilian buyers waiting on this cargo will need to cover the gap. For forwarders, that may mean spot bookings or air freight for urgent lines.

Our prediction

We expect general average to be formally declared on the HMM Platinum by 31 October 2026. We expect the GA and salvage security demand for uninsured cargo to land at 25% or more of cargo value once the adjusters publish it. And we expect that none of the Santos-bound cargo will reach Brazil before December 2026.
The lesson for forwarders is not new, but this case will make it painfully clear again. Cargo insurance is cheap compared with a GA bill. The time to say so to customers is before the next fire, not after it.

Sources

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• Splash247 — Fire-stricken HMM boxship seeks refuge in South Africa, 10 Oct 2026 \
• W.E. Cox Claims Group — Casualty Update: HMM Platinum, Fire (LOF salvage, GA likely), 8 Oct 2026 \
• Norton Rose Fulbright — The dangers of fires at sea: damage to containerised cargo, Jul 2017 \
• Supply Chain Dive — Shippers will foot more than half the bill to recover cargo after Maersk fire, 22 May 2018 \
• gCaptain — Containership fire breaks out every 17 days as misdeclared cargo remains major threat, 24 Jun 2026 \
• SWZ|Maritime — Misdeclared dangerous goods remain threat to shipping, 28 Jul 2026