New rules to tackle ‘misdeclared’ cargo

Spate of incidents leads IMO to impose mandatory verification of mass of packed containers

An important new regulation for all parties involved in international container shipping will come into force on 1 July 2016 with the implementation of amendments to SOLAS Regulation V1/2. This will make it mandatory for the gross weight of a packed container to be verified before it can be loaded onto a ship.

For some years there has been a lot of debate on how best to tackle the issue of container collapses and losses due to overweight containers. The widespread practice of overloading containers has led to a spate of incidents around the world – everything from broken cranes and fork-lift trucks to damaged vessels and even ship casualties, not to mention the risk of personal injury to seafarers and others.

Read more: SOLAS