Cargo insurer TT CLUB warned recently that a major fire breaks out on a container vessel ship every 60 days.
Nearly 25% of all serious incidents on-board container vessels are caused by incorrectly declared cargo, according to the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS).
Ocean carriers are now aggressively attacking this issue by implementing fines to shippers ranging from $ 15,000/container (Hapag Lloyd/HMM) to $ 35,000/container (Evergreen) for omission, concealment or mis-declaration of hazardous cargoes.
Other carriers are expected to announce their penalty levels in the next few days.
This action is taken to address a serious problem, with the most recent example being a fire that broke in sic containers out on-board the 10,106 TEU vessel APL Le Havre, the latest in a string of incidents that has received a lot of media coverage in the last few months.