By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
The officials of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) called on the local authorities to gather steam in developing the national regulations, ensuring the country would be in compliance with the new container weight rule under the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) convention, which will come into effect on July 1, 2016.

IMO Technical Officer Maritime Safety Division Loukas Kontogiannis stressed that before the new rule is implemented, guidance should be developed in addressing the certification and availability of the weighing equipment, approval requirements for the method of weighing all cargo and package items and the control and penalties for non-compliance. 

“Carriers, port authorities, container terminals, shippers and exporting companies should exchange information and adjust their contractual arrangements in light of the new requirements,” said Kontogiannis, while addressing ECCSL Maritime Forum 2016 in Colombo via a video conference call.
Under the adoption of SOLAS amendments resolution, the two main requirements are for the ‘verified’ gross mass to be a condition for loading a container onto a ship and the responsibility of providing the verified gross mass to be that of the shipper.

The decision to go ahead with the new rule comes after years of extensive consideration and debate on the matter of container collapses and losses due to the documented weight being significantly lower than what is loaded on 
to the ship.

In 2011, the IMO kicked off work on the Development of Measures to Prevent Loss of Containers following a proposal by Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands along with and comments from the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) and Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS).

While some stakeholders advocated for a single option of only weighing the packed container, a consensus was reached on a compromise proposal with two routes for obtaining a verified gross mass of the packed container prior to loading.

The two routes that would be opted are to weigh the container and to use a method approved by the competent authority based on the mass of component elements amendments to SOLAS regulation V.
Kontogiannis shared that the gross mass, according to the regulation, should be verified by the shipper either by weighing the packed container using calibrated and certified equipment or by weighing all packages and cargo items including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other securing material to be packed in the container.

The tare mass of the container should also be added to the sum of the single masses using a certified method approved by the competent authority of the state in which packing of the container 
was completed.

Furthermore, the shipper of a container should ensure the verified gross mass is stated in the shipping document. 

According to the IMO official, the shipping document must be signed by a person duly authorized by the shipper and submitted to the master or his representative and to the terminal representative sufficiently in advance.

“If the shipping document, with regard to a packed container, does not provide the verified gross mass and the master or his representative and the terminal representative have not obtained the verified gross mass of the packed container, it shall not be loaded on to the ship,” asserted Kontogiannis.