With growing container ship capacity and threat of cargo losses at sea coinciding, ClassNK has recently published two sets of guidelines to help improve cargo safety at sea.
The recent increase in container ship capacity – a response to the growing demand for freight container transport – has coincided with a sharp increase in the number of containers lost overboard, including some notable examples of stack collapse. While rising stack heights have surely contributed to this trend, other influential factors include wave height and size, the ship’s vertical centre of gravity (CoG), the CoG of the container stack and variability in stowage, and cargo securing equipment. Continue reading “Threat of cargo losses at sea: Fresh guidelines”
The American Bureau of Shipping has published the January 2024 Edition of Guide for Performance Standards for Corrosion Protection.
Managers of the two vessels involved in a fatal crew transfer ladder accident off Brisbane, Australia, had not ensured personnel had a common and complete understanding of how the transfer would be conducted, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (
A new initiative was rolled out and launched in September by Chubb. A new Lloyd’s of London consortium has been created (which Chubb will lead) that is designed to provide insurance coverage for risks associated with the transit and storage of lithium battery.
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (
Devastating consequences of rapidly spreading, and often challenging to extinguish fires involving the lithium-ion batteries particularly in electric vehicles (EV) on board ships, and other parts of the supply chain have been well-documented in recent months. There is however far less awareness of the highly toxic combustion products that are released and their respective impact to the health and wellbeing of those exposed to the gases.
National Cargo Bureau (NCB) has launched a second container inspection initiative to combat the persistent threat posed by misdeclared cargo. In a determined response to these sobering revelations and escalating concerns around ship fires, particularly those stemming from lithium-ion batteries, NCB is enhancing its inspection initiative. Several major shipping lines including Hapag Lloyd, Maersk and MSC have committed to the initiative, and container inspections have already commenced in various locations around the world.