Preventing the loss of seaborne containers
IACS Unified Requirements strive to improve box industry safety
By Hyungmin Cho , IACS Hull Panel Chair
The maritime container sector is the backbone of world trade and covers the worldwide carriage of some 80% of all goods. The 102 million metric tons of containerised goods transported in 1980 had grown to about 1.83 billion metric tons by 2017(ii), demonstrating the importance of container trade to global commerce.
Despite efforts and technological advances towards minimising container loss, a large increase in the number of transported containers has reaffirmed concerns regarding the loss of containers.
Containers lost overboard imply economic issues, jeopardise safe vessel traffic, and even pose an environmental hazard, if they contain dangerous goods.
As illustrated in Figure 1, it is noticeable that the approximate number of containers lost at sea has recently increased. This contradicts the zero-container- loss policy that the stakeholders of the maritime container segment are striving for.
Following the investigation report of the MSC Zoe incident prepared by the IMO Sub- Committee III-8 Correspondence Group (III8 CG), and interaction with the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), IACS assessed the safety issues related to the loss of containers and initiated a task force project within the Association’s Hull Panel. The project comprises experts from different member classification societies and approaches the problem of container loss at sea from three aspects: operation, design, and maintenance.
Lashing software is deemed to be the dominant solution in enhancing the safe seaborne transportation of containers. The Hull Panel is therefore developing Unified Requirement C6 (UR C6) to harmonise the performance standards and requirements for lashing software. Furthermore, the Hull Panel’s submission to IMO’s CCC8 to recognise lashing software as an additional means to supplement container stowage and securing plans, included in approved cargo securing manuals, received support in principle. However, the general view of the sub-committee was that harmonised performance standards and guidelines are required to permit the approval of lashing software to be carried out in a consistent manner. Consequently, a new output proposal was prepared by the Hull Panel and submitted to MSC 107 to introduce the supplementary use of lashing software together with the development of performance standards for lashing software to allow for uniform approval by flag State Administrations. Additionally, a follow-up proposal to revise the ‘Revised Guidelines for the Preparation of the Cargo Securing Manual’, (MSC.1/Circ.1353/ Rev.2) will be prepared and submitted to CCC10, scheduled for September 2024.
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“The Hull Panel is developing UR C6 to harmonise the performance standards and requirements for lashing software”
From the design perspective, the Hull Panel is developing UR C7 to ensure that container securing systems are approved and certified, enhancing the safe transportation of containerised cargoes. Working towards this UR development, special consideration has been afforded to detecting gaps between the rules of the member classification societies regarding the approval and certification of container securing systems.
The maintenance of container stowage and securing systems is another subject to which IACS is contributing via prescription of unified standards and requirements for allowable wear, tear, and corrosion of these systems. Such requirements are missing in the current rules of the majority of the Association’s Members, emphasising the challenge of harmonising these requirements, which are under development in UR C8.
The Unified Requirement documents UR C6, UR C7, and UR C8 are planned for completion in 2024 with their implementation by Member classification societies due in 2025.
Further assessment of the causes of container loss reveals that harmonisation in the assessment of the container stack dynamics is another area where IACS can actively contribute.
Here, the Hull Panel will examine the feasibility of harmonising the design loads on container stacks and investigate the synergies and collaboration possibilities with other IACS projects, particularly within ship motion and acceleration contexts. Moreover, with regard to container stack dynamics, the feasibility of harmonisation of strength assessment methodology, including the possibility of unification of calculation methodology and acceptance criteria, will be studied. These feasibility studies are planned for 2024.
Read more from IACS' 2023 Annual Review