Owners, Ports And Unions Call For All Boxes To Be Weighed

by Lloyd's List - last modified Jun 21, 2012 11:45 AM

Industry leaders want the weight of every export container to be verified in order to stamp out the practice of misdeclarations that poses a major safety threat to both seafarers and dockworkers.

Five leading industry associations have joined forces with several countries to submit a proposal to the International Maritime Organization requiring loaded containers to be weighed.

Denmark, Netherlands, US, BIMCO, the International Association of Ports and Harbours, the International Chamber of Shipping, the International Transport Workers’ Federation and the World Shipping Council have asked IMO’s subcommittee on Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers to consider the proposal at its next meeting in September.

The initiative follows a number of high-profile incidents involving containers that were either above or below the weight declared by the shipper, and failed attempts to find a non-mandatory answer to the problem. The ICS and WSC issued best practice guidelines in 2008 before deciding that more radical solutions were necessary.

How widespread weight misdeclarations are is hard to quantify. However, investigators found the weight of 137 containers on the grounded containership MSC Napoli differed from the declared weight by more than three tonnes.

“Misdeclared container weights are a recurring safety problem on shore, on ships, and on roadways. It is time to fix that problem,” said BIMCO secretary general Torben Skaanild.

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