Essential Reading

If you have anything to do with dangerous cargo take the time to read the article, Take a Holistic Approach.

The article, authored by the National Cargo Bureau, details a survey it undertook of 500 containers in the US which revealed a catalogue of errors covering how cargo was stowed, improper placarding and mis-declared cargo. Fifty-five per cent of the containers examined failed with one or more deficiencies.

Move swiftly on and think of such a container, carrying dangerous goods, onboard a high-capacity container vessel. It doesn’t take much to imagine what can happen because it has happened, an explosion/fire which puts the lives of the vessel’s crew seriously at risk. Furthermore, the incidence of serious fires onboard such vessels appears to be steadily increasing. Highlights of serious incidents include:

• 2012: MSC Flaminia, a fire burned for six weeks, resulting in the death of three crew, the destruction of 70 per cent of the cargo and the vessel being declared a constructive total loss.
• 2016: one of a number of incidents during the year – the 9000TEU CCNI Arauco caught fire in the port of Hamburg, Germany.
• 2017: the 13,800TEU MSC Daniela was on fire for over a week off the coast of Sri Lanka.
• 2018: the 15,226TEU Maersk Honam caught fire south-east of Oman, five crew members lost their lives and the incident resulted in one of the largest general average claims on record.
• 2021: Zim Kingston, the fire took a week to put out at the emergency anchorage in Vancouver.

In more than one case, it is clear that such incidents can be traced back to the type of hazardous cargo errors identified in the NCB survey.

What is the solution or at least path to minimising risk in conjunction with this seemingly growing problem? NCB has developed Hazcheck Detect, a cargo screening tool for mis-declared and undeclared dangerous goods which, it reports, is seeing increased take up by shipping lines. It screens approximately 15 million requests monthly, realising 500 – 1000 ‘hits’ a day. This, NCB underlines, prevents 40 – 50 high risk containers per week being loaded onto vessels.

Ports and terminals, however, also have an influential role to play in reducing the risk of serious incidents and, as the article explains, particularly through: improving the knowledge of personnel with the implementation of an effective IMDG Code training programme and encouraging the adoption of digital tools to improve shipping practices. Both of which can, of course, not only promote greater safety onboard vessels but also in terminals which, experience confirms, are also vulnerable to serious hazardous cargo related incidents.