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Over the course of three months late last year and early this year, almost 3,500 containers were lost in a number of incidents in the Western Pacific
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Causes for lost containers include rising weather unpredictability, growing sizes of box ships, and the surge in e-commerce
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The IMO will establish over the next couple of years a compulsory system to declare the loss of containers and set up a means on board to easily identify the exact number of losses
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is looking at new measures to mitigate the loss of containers at sea, as the shipping industry is seeing the biggest spike in lost boxes in recent years.
The issue was tackled at the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meeting earlier this month.
Containers lost at sea represent a potential danger to maritime safety and are a threat to the environment, particularly with regard to the plastics they contain.
The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) said in a report this month that over the course of three months late last year and early this year, almost 3,500 containers were lost in a number of incidents in the Western Pacific. This is far above the numbers usually registered for the same period and has raised concern regarding the causes of these incidents.
According to a Bloomberg article published last April, more than 3,000 boxes dropped into the sea last year, and more than 1,000 have fallen overboard so far in 2021.
In January, Maersk reported that Maersk Essen ran into heavy weather and lost about 750 containers overboard while en route from Xiamen, China, to Los Angeles, California. And in February, the Maersk Eindhoven experienced a loss of engine propulsion while sailing in heavy seas, resulting in severe rolling with 260 containers falling overboard.
In November last year, the 14,000-TEU vessel ONE Apus suffered a massive container stack collapse en route to Long Beach after encountering heavy weather near Hawaii, leading to 1,816 boxes in total lost overboard, including 64 dangerous goods boxes.
The incident was the worst since 2013, when the MOL Comfort broke in two and sank with its entire cargo of 4,293 containers into the Indian Ocean.
The causes behind the loss of containers are many. Bad weather conditions are occurring with increasing frequency, creating instability on board. Ships are getting bigger, allowing more containers to be stacked higher than ever before.
Moreover, the surge in e-commerce after consumer demand exploded during the pandemic has created an urgency for shipping lines to deliver products as quickly as possible.
It is actually difficult to have precise figures on the number of containers lost, particularly as container visibility from the bridge may be limited by the containers themselves, and only the upper tiers and the nearest bays can be seen, said BIMCO.
When a relatively distant stack of containers collapses, it is difficult to determine immediately and precisely how many containers are involved and when they fell. These events generally occur in adverse weather conditions that prevent immediate on-site investigation. For the crew, it is extremely dangerous to walk along unstable container stacks.
The MSC therefore agreed to initiate new measures to detect and report containers lost at sea, which may enhance the positioning, tracking and recovery of such containers. The IMO agreed to establish a compulsory system to declare the loss of containers and set up a means on board to easily identify the exact number of losses.
Together with such a system, the ships are obliged to report the loss of any containers through a standardized procedure, possibly detailing, for example, identification, cargo carried (particularly dangerous goods or harmful substances), or whether these containers may float and constitute a risk of collision with ships and boats.
Over the next couple of years, the IMO will develop such measures in order to mitigate containers fallen into the sea in the first place, and to restore fidelity in the safety of container transport with the present fleet.
