ContainersOperations

Top carriers join forces to investigate scourge of fires at sea

Some of the world’s biggest carriers are joining forces with the world’s first industrial safety technology accelerator to launch a new innovation initiative to reduce cargo loss at sea.

Evergreen Line, HMM, Maersk, the Offen Group, Ocean Network Express (ONE), Seaspan as well as Lloyd’s Register will work with Safetytech Accelerator to find and advance technology innovations from across maritime and other industrial sectors to reduce the incidence and impact of cargo fires or cargo loss overboard.

The scale and breadth of the challenges facing operators is growing and continues to evolve. These include, through the increasing carriage of lithium-ion batteries either in containers or within electric vehicles on car-carriers and the increasing growth in complexity and size of modern container vessels.

The Safetytech Accelerator Cargo Fire & Loss Innovation Initiative (CFLII) is a collaborative technology acceleration program that will help tackle the issue through shaping joint requirements, identifying technology solutions, undertaking carefully designed trials and developing best practices and recommendations.

The initiative has a broad scope encompassing three significant topics of concern. The first relates to onboard cargo control, including whether cargo has been properly, loaded, secured and monitored during transit. The second area covers the ability to detect fire onboard and stop its spread through effective onboard response, particularly on large container ships and car carriers. The third relates to the challenges created by the increasing scale of vessels.

The head of marine standards at Maersk, Aslak Ross, said: “The main root cause for cargo fires on container ships is the integrity of dangerous goods throughout the supply chain. Therefore it is a problem that can only be improved through industry-wide solutions and for that reason we are a strong believer in sharing of learnings across the industry to improve safety.”

There are plenty of other ongoing research projects led by carriers, insurers and class societies into the fires at sea issue, which has dogged container and car carriers in a massive way over the past five years.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

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