A British High Court has ordered Indian chemical company Sree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength Hypo to pay Maersk more than USD 13 million over an explosion on the container ship Maersk Seoul in 2015.
DR reports that a 54-page British judgment is the first substantial public account of what happened on board. The explosion occurred on July 19, 2015, as the ship sailed through the Strait of Hormuz off the United Arab Emirates.
According to the judgment as described by DR, the second officer, Romulus Focsaneanu, saw a large cloud of white smoke at 1:33 p.m. Captain Vedran Pavic triggered the alarm, and the crew fought the fire with water and CO2 extinguishers. It was under control about an hour later.
Three containers of the chemical calcium hypochlorite were on board, all owned by the listed Indian company Sree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength Hypo. Further containers with the same product were unloaded in Jebel Ali in Dubai as a precaution. There, a violent chemical decomposition ignited the cargo and destroyed a container.
Second fire proved decisive
The court treated the shoreside fire as central, because it showed the first fire could not be explained by conditions on the ship alone, per DR. Fire and explosion specialist Mark Phillips, appointed by Maersk, concluded the boxes lacked sufficient air circulation. The judge found the packing failure was a material cause of the accident.
The case is recorded as Maersk A/S v Sree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength Hypo Ltd (MV Maersk Seoul), citation [2026] EWHC 2005 (Comm), according to the CML CMI Database at the NUS Centre for Maritime Law. It states the judgment was handed down on July 28, 2026, by Peter MacDonald Eggers KC in the Commercial Court. The ruling also grants a final anti-suit injunction enforcing an exclusive English jurisdiction clause.
The Inner Temple Library legal news bulletin lists the decision as a recent Commercial Court judgment of the same date. Sree Rayalaseema did not appear in London, having filed its own case in Kurnool, India, DR writes. The judge gave that decision no weight and awarded damages of just over DKK 85 million, covering fire and salvage costs, plus legal costs in both jurisdictions.
The Indian market news site ScanX reported on August 12, 2026, that the claim was quantified at USD 13.17 million. It noted the company’s management position that the ultimate liability remains undetermined while legal remedies are pursued.
The judgment also notes that Maersk’s own Dangerous Goods Team did not detect that the cargo failed the shipping line’s internal requirements. The judge found no basis to call that the real cause of the fire. In August 2015, Maersk stopped accepting calcium hypochlorite for transport.
Maersk confirmed the judgment’s existence in an email to DR but had no further comment. The Indian company has not responded to DR’s questions about a possible appeal.
