Poorly stowed, undeclared, or mis-declared dangerous cargoes are causing an uptick of containership accidents at sea.
In 2019, nine significant containership fires were reported, resulting in major damage to vessels, cargoes, and other consequences. One cause is the increasing number of containers being carried on each vessel combined with the trend of larger containerships being sailed. (Since the 1960s, individual carrying capacity has increased more than 1500%.) The more containers on board, the greater chance of the ship being exposed to undeclared or mis-declared dangerous cargo, which poses a serious safety threat to the crew, vessel, and the environment.
Routine inspections of containers reveal a high degree of non-compliance with declared DG containers, including poor stowage and securing. In 2022, the National Cargo Bureau (NCB) conducted some 32,000 DG container inspections throughout the USA, which revealed that 7.9% were non-compliant due to poor stowage, securing and/or mis-declared cargo.
Additionally, over the past three years, the NCB conducted some 3,000 DG compliance reviews on board container vessels. Of these reviews, 24% were flagged as having some type of stowage or securing issue, and 71% showed discrepancies on the vessel’s dangerous cargo manifest.
The NCB is calling for urgent reform to industry-wide compliance and safety. They recommend the industry institute a comprehensive dangerous goods program that sets a high, minimum bar for regulatory compliance and an internal safety culture with strong management backing.