South Korea excluded cargo containing hazardous substances from being transferred or unloaded from vessels at several terminals of the port of Ulsan, following the fire that erupted at the port on Saturday 29 September.
The containerised supply chain is complex. For this reason, TT Club called out any practice that may harm safety. As the Club informed, key targets relate to shipment, handling and carriage of dangerous goods. 2019 has seen a significant increase in incidents regarding shipment of dangerous goods, including a number of high-profile ship fires.
South Africa has become the latest country to accede to a key compensation treaty covering the transport of hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) by ship. The treaty has now been ratified by five States (Canada, Denmark, Norway, South Africa and Turkey). The total quantity of contributing cargo has reached 9.8 million tonnes.
Maritime Blockchain Labs has created a consortium, aiming to explore the use of blockchain in order to address the dangers and challenges regarding the declaration and handling of dangerous goods. The consortium will establish a prototype to analyze the possibility for distributed ledger technology to address the challenges that stakeholders face in the supply chain.
A growing number of goods are being transported by sea and in containers, including electronics and, increasingly, chemical products. However, dangerous goods are not always properly declared, which can have dire consequences, specially when considering the trend of larger vessel sizes, according to Allianz.
The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) is meeting for its 101st session. Its agenda is including maritime autonomous surface ships, polar shipping, and goal-based standards among other agenda items. Numerous draft amendments will be adopted, regarding dangerous cargo, autonomous ships, polar shipping and fuel oil safety.
Port Authority Director of Thailand, Kamolsak Phromprayoon, reported that the fire onboard KMTC containership was due to mis-declared chemical cargoes of calcium hypochlorite and chlorinated paraffin wax. The port Authority inspected 35 containers at the centre of the blaze, which resulted to more than half of of cargoes contained chemical products.
ABS is cooperating with CINS members over the past six months to develop best stowage strategy guidelines. After a three-month trial, the best practice guidelines will be published. The collaboration gathers key industry stakeholders to examine the challenges and risks container ship owners and operators face when stowing dangerous goods.
West of England Club highlights the importance of safely securing cargo, in order to avoid any incidents. The Club continues to receive claims in respect of cargo shifting due to inadequate securing where roll trailers have been used. This can either be inadequate securing of the load to the trailer or inadequate securing of the trailer to the vessel, or a combination of both.
According to Singapore’s Maritime Port Authority, from January 1, 2019 the Notification relating to the Weight Limitation of Dangerous Goods is amended by the Notification relating to the Weight Limitation of Dangerous Goods (G.N. No. 3474/2018) published on 28 December 2018, as the Notification’.
