Containers.

[magoonigal]

Seeing as we don't have a section for general chat, I've popped this one in here............

Just got the February edition of Sea Breezes this morning and was surprised to see at the top of page 7 :-

"IMO says all containers will have to be weighed"

From the 1st June 2016 all containers will have to be weighed before they are put on board a ship, for safety reasons.
How do the crew work out stability calculations at the moment without knowing the weight of the containers they are currently putting on board???
A very heavy container placed high up on a feeder ship could currently have a very serious effect on the stability of that vessel...........and this could happen as containers tend to be loaded for ease of discharge.

[northeast]

Traditionally they have used 'declared weight' but there lies the problem as shippers cannot be trusted to provide accurate weights. Consequences can be serious, as you mention. Incorrect declaration of hazardous contents is also an issue.

[shipbroker]

Traditionally they have used 'declared weight' but there lies the problem as shippers cannot be trusted to provide accurate weights. Consequences can be serious, as you mention. Incorrect declaration of hazardous contents is also an issue.

Quite agree...we had some containers which had been declared as 24 tonnes gross from Canada.....a 40 tonne overhead crane had problems lifting them...

However, I was involved in shipping knocked-down furnaces from Lackenby,via Tees Dock, and from Shotton, via Liverpool...every container was grossed and tared this side, many hundreds of them....the Chinese were most astonished that someone had bothered to do it, nobody else had.

geoff