Dangerous Goods News

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has issued its third ban from Australian waters to a Briese Heavylift GmbH & Co ship this year.AMSA issued the 90-day ban to the Antigua & Barbuda-flagged general cargo ship BBC Jade, after inspectors in Port Alma found 57 tons of explosive substances had been incorrectly stowed on board the vessel during transit.The International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code outlines the minimum international standards for the maritime transport of dangerous goods…

Damen Shipyards announced it has received a new order for a Combi Freighter (CF) 5000 and an additional CF 3850 from the Feyz Group in Turkey. The order comes just four weeks after another contract was signed for three CF 3850s.The new vessels will be built at Damen Yichang Shipyard in China for scheduled delivery at the end 2024.The Feyz Group is currently renewing its fleet, and Damen's policy of building in series with a standardized and modular design approach enables fast delivery times.Designed for general cargo like the other models in the Damen Combi Freighter family…

Global shipping companies are exploring ways to boost safety in transporting cargoes as risks grow from fires erupting inside containers or in cars at sea, officials said on Wednesday.Shipping transports around 90% of world trade onboard different vessels including container and Ro-Ro ships with trade routes getting busier.In a new initiative, leading carriers Evergreen Line of Taiwan, South Korea's HMM, Denmark's Maersk, Germany's Offen Group, Singapore's ONE (Ocean Network Express)…

Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) and the inland navigation sector with the support of the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (CCNR) have collaborated with other European organizations to produce the second edition of the International Safety Guide for Inland Navigation Tank-barges and Terminals (ISGINTT).The purpose of ISGINTT is to improve the safe transport of dangerous goods at the interface between inland tank barges and other vessels or shore facilities (terminals).

The most important of all international maritime safety conventions is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). The first version was adopted at a conference in London in 1914. The catalyst for this conference was the sinking of the Titanic on her first voyage in April 1912, which cost the lives of more than 1,500 passengers. This was the beginning of the journey that put in place a regulatory framework to protect those who work and travel by sea.Whilst the sinking of the Titanic was not fire-related…

Canadian naval architecture and marine engineering firm Robert Allan Ltd. said it has been awarded a contract by Rio Maguari Shipyard (Estaleiro Rio Maguari – ERM), located in Belém, Brazil, to develop the design package for an innovative Articulated Tug and Barge (ATB) for shipping containers along the coast of Brazil. These two ATB convoys will be owned and operated by Aliança Navegação e Logística (ANL), a major logistics services provider in Latin America, and part of the Maersk Group.Robert Allan Ltd.’s engineering team…

Commercial insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty released its Safety & Shipping Review, an annual analysis of shipping losses and accidents worldwide. The 2022 report reveals that the maritime sector continues its long-term positive safety trend over the past year with 54 total losses of vessels reported globally, compared with 65 a year earlier. This represents a 57% decline over 10 years (127 in 2012); while during the early 1990s the global fleet was losing 200+ vessels a year.The 2021 loss total is made more impressive by the fact that there are an estimated 130…

Abu Dhabi's AD Ports Group and the Red Sea Ports Authority have signed a Term Sheet and a Head of Terms agreement for what they say are major port projects along Egypt’s coastline, including multi-purpose terminals, and cruise ship berths.The first agreement will see AD Ports Group develop, operate, and manage a multi-purpose terminal in Safaga Port in a consortium with the Red Sea Ports Authority and the Egyptian Group for Multipurpose Terminals Company, the commercial arm of…

KR Hellas, a subsidiary of the Korean Register (KR) has been accredited as a quality management system (ISO 9001) certification body, by the Greek National Accreditation Body (ESYD).ISO 9001 is an international standard that stipulates the requirements of a quality management system applicable to all industrial fields and activities, and the certification is awarded by an independent third party to those organizations that meet the specified requirements.KR acts as a comprehensive certification body…

Classification society the Korean Register (KR) has published guidance outlining the technical measures necessary to safely load and carry containers on bulk cargo ships amid the current sustained unprecedented boom in the box shipping market.With the recent unprecedented boom in the maritime transport market, demand from shipping companies wanting to load and transport containers on bulk cargo ships has increased significantly as a way to resolve the shortage of container ships.Bulk cargo ships…

The Indonesian Navy says it has seized a Panamanian-flagged tanker in the waters off Riau islands after the foreign vessel was found to be carrying more than 4,000 tons of oil without valid permits.Indonesian Navy commander admiral Arsyad Abdullah said in a statement late Wednesday that the Panamanian-flagged tanker, the MT Zodiac Star, was seized on suspicion of conducting illegal activities in the country's waters.The Navy said the Panamanian-flagged tanker was carrying 4,600 tons of ‘black oil’, suspected of being waste, without a port clearance or a valid permit to transport dangerous goods.“The Navy will not hesitate to take action against all forms of legal violations that occur in Indonesian waters…

As the maritime industry continues to develop and test the technologies required for safe autonomous vessel operations, many regulatory questions have remained.Setting out to help answer some of these questions, the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has recently completed a regulatory scoping exercise to analyze relevant ship safety treaties, in order to assess how maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) could be regulated.The scoping exercise was initiated in 2017 to determine how safe…

SCHOTTEL said it has delivered propulsion units for nine more newly built cargo vessels. Each of the carriers, designed by the Russian company Marine Engineering Bureau, is equipped with two rudder propellers from the German propulsion systems manufacturer.The main propulsion of the multipurpose dry cargo vessels consists of a pair of diesel-driven SCHOTTEL RudderPropellers type SRP 340, each with an input power of 1,200 kilowatts at 1,000 revolutions per minute. With this thruster configuration…

The proliferation of serious fires onboard container ships in recent years has shocked the shipping industry. Here we examine the causes and impact of such fires and the urgent efforts being made by a wide variety of stakeholders to solve this seemingly intractable problem.Over the last decade there has been a 70% fall in ship total losses[1]. This has been widely credited to long term improvements in ship safety management and loss prevention programs. Counter to this trend, there has been a substantial increase in the number of fires in containers carried onboard container and RoRo ships.

ONE Apus containership - Credit:Marco Wisniowski / MarineTrafficNearly 2,000 containers aboard a ship managed by NYK Shipmanagement of Japan were lost or damaged when it hit by stormy weather in the Pacific Ocean, the company said, adding that the vessel was heading to Japan for assessment.Such a large amount of container losses is rare in the international shipping industry, averaging less than 1,400 a year in the last 12 years.ONE Apus, owned by Chidori Ship Holdings, was traveling from Yantian in China to Long Beach…

Fire safety has become a major concern in the container shipping industry, in particular, with vessels of 20,000-TEU and more entering the market. A fire in just one container can have catastrophic implications for the whole of the cargo. The very nature of container shipping means that the cargoes are in general finished goods of high value. Insurer Allianz gives the example of a March 2018 fire onboard the Maersk Honam southeast of Oman. At the time the ship was carrying 7,860 containers, corresponding to 12,416 TEU.

Broward County’s Port Everglades has appointed Ricardo D. Charlton, BSME, FSO, as its new Director of Operations.Port Everglades is a self-supporting enterprise fund of Broward County, Fla., generating more than $170 million in revenues in fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018 – September 1, 2019) and is ranked among the nation’s leading container ports and a world leader in the cruise industry.As Director of Operations, Charlton will oversee a workforce of 95 encompassing the Division’s Harbormaster Office…

The National Cargo Bureau is calling for reforms to stem the increasing number of container-related incidents caused by poorly stowed, undeclared or misdeclared dangerous cargoesThe National Cargo Bureau (NCB) – a U.S. inspection body authorized to certify compliance with Dangerous Goods regulations – reports in a newly published white paper that a recent inspection initiative revealed an alarming number of containers carried by sea include misdeclared dangerous cargoes that represent a serious safety risk to crew…

Surgical masks and other items have been found washing up onto Australian beaches Tuesday after the Singapore-flagged APL England lost at least 40 containers overboard in heavy seas off the coast of Sydney.The medical supplies have been found on shores between Magenta Beach and The Entrance, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which said the locations and contents are consistent with its debris drift models and items listed on the ship’s cargo manifest.

A double-ended ro-pax ferry Nairana has been launched for service to Bruny Island in Tasmania. The Incat Crowther 44 design vessel was commissioned by Sealink Travel Group and built by Richardson Devine Marine in Hobart.According to Incat Crowther, Nairana will bring improvements in both transit and turn-around times. The vessel combines a robust aluminum structure, double-ended functionality and a catamaran platform with a generous beam offering fuel savings compared to a monohull.The ferry is configured to carry 36 cars and 192 passengers.

Nairana, a new all-aluminium ferry, is equipped with Schottel propulsion solutions.“The brief was to provide two unique, new vessels that are highly maneuverable to facilitate rapid turnaround times, have multiple engines for redundancy, and are economical," said Roger Janes, Sales and Marketing Manager of Australian shipbuilder Richardson Devine Marine. "Overall, they needed to be uncomplicated and reliable.The Incat Crowther-designed Nairana is constructed entirely from aluminium.

Deficiencies in the cargo stowage arrangement ultimately caused the YM Efficiency to lose 81 containers while sailing in heavy seas off Australia in June 2018, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's (ATSB) investigation revealed.The Liberian-flagged vessel was en route from Taiwan to Sydney when it suddenly rolled heavily in strong gale force winds and rough seas, causing the ship to lose 81 containers overboard and another 62 containers to be damaged. The containership, operated by Taiwan shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation…

Incidents involving container ships, although not new, have made the news much more frequently of late. In 2011 the Container Incident Notification System (CINS) was established to allow container ship owners to self-report incidents that might be of concern the other members of the group, and today CINS has 17 vessel owner members.The cases of the Yantian Express, Maersk Honam, MSC Flaminia, MSC Daniela, are some of the most recent examples of container ship fires. The rise in the rate of container ship fires…