22 February 2023 (Lloyd's List) - LLOYD’S Register’s Safetytech Accelerator organisation has launched a new containership safety initiative to help drive down cargo losses on board boxships.
The Cargo Fire and Loss Innovation Initiative is a collaborative programme that has already received support from a number of leading carriers seeking to reduce the impact of cargo fires and containers lost overboard.
Evergreen, HMM, Lloyd's Register, Maersk, the Offen Group, Ocean Network Express and Seaspan have all joined as ‘anchor partners’ in the initiative.
“The scale and breadth of the challenges facing operators is growing and continues to evolve,” LR said in a release. “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. Fire and cargo loss at sea not only has an immediate impact on the safety of those onboard but also creates the potential for significant environmental damage.”
The initiative will cover 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 onboard responses, particularly on large container ships and car carriers. The third relates to the challenges created by the increasing scale of vessels.
“From LR side, the objective of the initiative resonates with our mandate to improve the safety of ships and crew, as well as protect the marine ecosystem,” said LR global containerships segment director Nick Gross. “We believe it is vital to work together to tackle the increasing risk of cargo fires onboard container ships.”
Maersk head of maritime standards Aslak Ross said reducing the risk of cargo fires was a key priority for Maersk, which suffered from one of the largest cargo fires in the Maersk Honam casualty.
“The main root cause for cargo fires on container ships is the integrity of dangerous goods throughout the supply chain,” he said. “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.”
Safetytech Accelerator managing director Maurizio Pilu added the organisation’s mission was to help solve some of the “most complex safety, risk and resilience challenges” the industry faced.
“Eliminating cargo fire and loss is a big challenge in the maritime industry and while accidents are thankfully infrequent, their impact can be extremely large,” he said. “Together with the anchor partners we hope this new collaborative technology acceleration initiative will help industry make significant progress towards that goal.”
