According to a report by the Yangtze River Administration, the Hua An Ji barge was reportedly boarded at Wuhan Yangluo terminal in April for a routine inspection. But safety officials found fake documents – permits for shipping dangerous goods and special qualifications for crew members – during the exercise. Another fake document gave permission for the barge to carry more containers that it was designed for.
The barge’s logbook showed that the fake documentation was used three times on the Wuhan-Shanghai route this year.
David Lammie, director, Yangtze Business Services Ltd, said to Port Strategy: “We don’t have a feel for how common this might be since we haven’t done any studies on the matter, though we might in future.”
But, many experts believe that shipping dangerous cargo is currently the most profitable business on the Yangtze because price wars among barge operators have squeezed profits.
Mr Lammie added: “The price wars have impacted containerised rates for non-DG cargo, making DG cargo relatively profitable. That is just a supply and demand thing and presumably market forces should in theory at least lead to a correction, if not in the short term.”