Another leading ocean freight operator has signed up for Hazcheck Detect, a digital tool aimed at red-flagging the misdeclaration of goods used by shippers to avoid hazardous cargo rates.
News out of London is that Hapag-Lloyd has become the third carrier – after Maersk and ONE – to adopt the screening method by New York marine surveyors, National Cargo Bureau.
Ever since last year’s catastrophic fire destruction at sea of the X-Press Pearl (*), which suffered a nitric acid leak from one of its containers, Hazcheck Detect has fast gained popularity for detecting description deception.
Instead of declaring nitric acid, some shippers deceive carriers by using phrases like “plant growth regulator”, thereby avoiding hefty risk-related insurance rates determined by Institute Cargo Clauses, a world standard.
The liquefaction of extremely flammable substances, regularly misdeclared and wrongfully containerised, has in recent years led to disastrous Hazchem incidents at sea, resulting in litigation running into millions of dollars.
* Read the following posts for context
Acid blaze engulfs ship in ‘preventable’ disaster: https://tinyurl.com/2p82j99t
X-Press Pearl owners still trying to save cargo: https://tinyurl.com/2p88s2vr
Ports in the firing line over X-Press Pearl disaster: https://tinyurl.com/2p9ym4z8
Four ‘detained’ X-Press Pearl crew mariners head home: https://tinyurl.com/2p8ct8cp
