From SCDigest's On-Target e-Magazine
Dec. 14, 2011
Global Supply Chain News: World Shipping Council Says it is Time Ocean Container Weights are Verified, Not Just Declared
US Only Country to Require Actual Weight Verification at Ports; Erroneous Weights Cause a Slew of Problems for Ocean Carriers and Shippers
SCDigest Editorial Staff
Ocean shipping carriers and some port operators are renewing calls for actually weighing each container that is to be loaded on a ship. Today, the US is one of the few countries that required actual weight verification; most others simply rely on "declared weight," which is often inaccurate.
SCDigest Says: |
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US law requires each export container to be weighed prior to loading, and a number of other ports worldwide do so on a voluntary basis. But the percentage of ports taking this step remains small in the absence of regulatory requirements to do so
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What Do You Say?
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About one year ago, the World Shipping Council and the International Chamber of Shipping issued a white paper that called for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to establish an international legal requirement that all loaded containers be weighed at the marine port facility before they are stowed aboard a vessel for export.
"The issue of overweight containers has been a subject of industry, insurance, and at times government, concern over the years, and has from time-to-time become an issue of concern to the general public after incidents involving overweight boxes," that report said.
There are varying contexts or definitions of “overweight”. A loaded container can exceed road weight limits, rail weight limits, crane lifting limits, container carrying capacity limits, or its weight as declared by the shipper.
The report said the industry urgently needs to find methods to ensure that the correct weight of the containers is declared to the carrier and communicated to the ship’s master in order to allow for correct and well-informed handling and stowage of the containers on the ship.
Although there is no reliable data on the percent of inaccurate weight data, the report believes the problem is "significant," and in some lanes "rampant."
"Shipping lines have reported that in severe cases, the overweight or incorrectly declared weights reaches 10% of the total cargo on board a vessel," the report said, noting that "Some carriers report that it is not uncommon for actual total cargo weight aboard ship to be 3-7% greater than the declared weight."
The impact of these overweight containers are many, and include:
• Incorrect vessel stowage decisions
• Restowage of containers (and resulting delays and costs), if the overweight condition is ascertained
• Collapsed container stacks
• Containers lost overboard (both the overweights and containers that were not overweight)
• Cargo liability claims
• Chassis damage
• Damage to ships
• Stability and stress risks for ships
• Risk of personal injury or death to seafarers and shoreside workers
• Impairment of service schedule integrity
• Supply chain service delays for shippers of properly declared containers
• Last minute shut-outs of confirmed, booked and available loads when the actual weight on board exceeds what is declared, and the total cargo weight exceeds the vessel limit or port draft limit.
• Lost revenue and earnings for the carrier
• Liability for accidents and fines for overweights on roads, and resulting time and administrative efforts and costs to seek reimbursement from responsible parties
• Impairment of vessels’ optimal trim and draft, thus causing impaired vessel efficiency, suboptimal fuel usage, and greater vessel air emissions.
It adds that in recent years there several highly publicized container vessel safety incidents involving container stowage, bringing urgency to the problem. That includes one in June 2011 in which a small container ship tipped over at the pier in Algeciras, Spain. Investigators found that almost one in 10 of the vessel's containers were two to seven times over the declared weight.
(Global Supply Chain Article Continued Below)
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An earlier "best practices" document said that ports/terminals should verify the container weight against documentation by use of a weighbridge or weight gauge/load indicator on yard equipment, or verify that weighing has occurred before entry and that such weighing was compliant with accepted best practice.” 