The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) have announced the formation of a joint venture to develop best practices for moving dangerous goods.
According to a statement, the organizations are teaming up to make actionable recommendations to shippers and mitigate the risks of stowing dangerous goods aboard container ships.
There has been a number of recent incidents involving dangerous cargo, including a fire that broke out on Hapag-Lloyd’s Yantian Express vessel in January 2019.
Mike Bradley discusses how shipping companies can protect against the threat of fires and explosions in a Port Technology technical paper
As part of the collaboration, industry stakeholders have come together to assess the challenges and risks faced by shipowners and vessel operators that are responsible for carrying this type of cargo.
By establishing a comprehensive set of guidelines, ABS and CINS hope to lead a focused application of existing risk assessment processes.
Gareth Burton, ABS Vice President for Technology, commented: “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.”
TT Club has revealed that in 66% of incidents, cargo damage is due to poor practice in the overall packing process… @TT_Club #PTIDaily #Shipping #Fire #Insurancehttps://t.co/MWsrq716y9
— Port Technology (PTI) (@PortTechnology) March 22, 2019
Uffe Ernst-Frederiksen, CINS Chairman, added: “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.”
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