New Project to Mitigate Risk to Containerships from Hazardous Cargo

US – The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and representatives from the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) have formed a joint industry project to develop actionable recommendations to help mitigate risks posed from the stowage of dangerous goods on containerships.

ABS has been working with CINS members over the past six months to develop best stowage strategy guidelines. Following a three-month trial, the best practice guidelines will be published on the CINS website. The collaboration assembles key industry stakeholders to examine the challenges and risks containership owners and operators face when stowing dangerous goods. ABS Vice President for Technology, Gareth Burton, said:

“Carriage of dangerous goods, not properly identified or accounted for, can be detrimental to the safety of the ship and more importantly the people on board that ship. Central to our joint effort is advancing safety by developing a set of best practices incorporating key lessons learned provided by CINS members from past incidents.”

The objective of this project is the compilation of a comprehensive set of best practices to improve stowage planning and hazard mitigation for dangerous goods carriage, leading to a focused application of existing risk assessment processes. Uffe Ernst-Frederiksen, CINS Chairman, commented:

“By working together with ABS and other leading international partners, we can share our experiences and help to improve the safety of stowing dangerous goods. We are looking forward to channelling these experiences into the development of this new industry best practices document and welcome views, insights, and other risk-based approaches from various carriers that can help improve fire safety in our industry.”

Photo: Miraculously nobody was seriously hurt when cargo aboard the Hyundai Fortune exploded in March 2006. A third of the containers aboard were destroyed or lost in a fire which lasted for several days.