Container Owners Association News

Every year, 250 million containers are transported across the world with food, clothes, electronics and other goods. While crucial for the smooth functioning of the global supply chain, containers and their cargoes can also harbour and transfer contaminating pests.All parties in the supply chain have a shared responsibility for stopping the spread of pests by keeping cargo and containers clean, and the Prevention of Pest Contamination of Containers: Joint Industry Guidelines for…

The Container Owners Association (COA) is providing an open standard (at the application layer level) to permit interoperability of telematics device data from shipping containers.The international organisation representing the common interests of freight container owners said that the open standard, which will start with refrigerated containers, but then be expanded to cover all container types, will pave the way for all container owners to have multiple choices of vendors and platforms for their container fleets when choosing telematics systems.This will reduce risk and provide a more competitive and innovative marketplace of solutions to be explored and deployed…

In a significant breakthrough for the container shipping business, the two criteria currently used when inspecting containers during the interchange process between operators and leasing companies are now to be harmonised. Until now, there have been two different interchange inspection standards: the “IICL-5” criteria (managed by the Institute of International Container Lessors); and the “Common Interchange Criteria”, administered by the CIC Group of leasing companies, comprising five of the world’s leading container lessors (Triton Container, Seaco, Florens Container Services, CAI and Blue Sky Intermodal) who represent over 50 percent of the world’s leased dry freight container fleet.

The Container Owners Association (COA) has had to develop a new global online database of refrigeration machinery repair companies, following 5 separate explosions that caused 3 deaths in 2011. Investigations into the incidents, which resulted in three deaths, concluded that the refrigeration machines had contained a gas other than the refrigerant R134a for which they were designed to operate on, which had created explosive gases inside the system. After testing samples from over 10…

BIMCO has announced that its new Secretary General/CEO to succeed Mr Torben C. Skaanild on his retirement later this year will be Mr Angus R. Frew, currently Chief Executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping. The appointment of Mr Frew was unanimously approved last week by the BIMCO Executive Committee at its meeting in Shanghai. It is expected that Mr Frew, who will be relocating to Denmark, will take up his appointment on 1st October 2013. Mr Skaanild will continue in a support role to the new Secretary General, and the incoming President of BIMCO, for a period of six months thereafter.

The Container Owners Association – the international organization representing container shipping lines and container leasing companies worldwide – has appointed Mr O I Kwon, Senior Vice President – Container Business Management Division, STX Panocean Co Ltd, to its Board of Directors. Mr Kwon joins six other Directors, who represent some of the world’s largest container owners, on the Board of the Container Owners Association. “It is a great honour – both for me personally, and for my company STX Panocean - to join the COA Board,” Mr Kwon says. “This position carries considerable responsibility and I will do my best to promote the COA in Asia and to support the wide range of initiatives that the COA is working on.

The Container Owners Association (COA) appoints O. I. Kwon, Senior V-P, Container Business Management Division, STX Panocean, to its Board. The Container Owners Association (COA) was established in November 2004 as an international organisation representing the common interests of all owners of freight containers, worldwide. It has over 165 Members, including container shipping lines, leasing companies, intermodal operators and suppliers of a wide range of container equipment and services. Mr Kwon joins six other Directors, who represent some of the world’s largest container owners, on the Board of the Container Owners Association. "“It is a great honour – both for me personally, and for my company STX Panocean - to join the COA Board,”" Mr Kwon said.

The Code of Practice consists of five parts including; material testing, container selection, container labelling, incident management and training. Following a process of review, implementation and audit, Trans Ocean became the very first flexitank operator in the industry to submit all documents to the COA, including independent audit reports where required. “This is a significant milestone, and the path leading to this achievement has been both interesting and challenging”, said Brendan McKenna, Hillebrand Group Board Member.

World’s largest online database for cargo transportation goes live. BMT De Beer, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has launched CargoHandbook.com (www.cargohandbook.com), the world’s largest online database for cargo transportation in the marine industry. As a rich source of knowledge, BMT De Beer aims to provide and share information on cargo transportation with the wider market and therefore help to reduce the number of cargo incidents and claims that occur. Jeroen De Haas, Managing Director at BMT De Beer explains: “While every mode of transport has its own challenges and limitations…