A report by the World Shipping Council states that fewer than 1,000 shipping containers are lost overboard per year, a fraction of the 10,000 that some organizations have reported in public, according to a story in Maritime Executive magazine, The Triton reports.
Several factors can cause containers to be lost at sea, including severe weather, collisions and groundings. Partially submerged containers present serious navigational hazards to yachts and ships.
The WSC surveyed its members, which represent more than 90 percent of the global containership capacity, and asked for the actual number of containers lost overboard for three previous consecutive years. Including catastrophic losses, the members averaged about 675 containers lost per year.
In 2010, the international liner shipping industry carried about 100 million containers of cargo; 500 lost containers would constitute 0.0005 percent of the loaded containers transported.
While the number of containers lost at sea is unlikely to be zero, several efforts in recent years aims to lower the number, including the industry/government project called Lashing@Sea (3), led by the Maritime Research Institute of the Netherlands.
The International Maritime Organization begins in September a review of an industry proposal to require that the actual weight of every loaded container be verified and provided to the vessel operator prior to stowing aboard a ship, because misdeclared container weights have contributed to the loss of containers overboard, the WSC said in a statement.
Several factors can cause containers to be lost at sea, including severe weather, collisions and groundings. Partially submerged containers present serious navigational hazards to yachts and ships.
The WSC surveyed its members, which represent more than 90 percent of the global containership capacity, and asked for the actual number of containers lost overboard for three previous consecutive years. Including catastrophic losses, the members averaged about 675 containers lost per year.
In 2010, the international liner shipping industry carried about 100 million containers of cargo; 500 lost containers would constitute 0.0005 percent of the loaded containers transported.
While the number of containers lost at sea is unlikely to be zero, several efforts in recent years aims to lower the number, including the industry/government project called Lashing@Sea (3), led by the Maritime Research Institute of the Netherlands.
The International Maritime Organization begins in September a review of an industry proposal to require that the actual weight of every loaded container be verified and provided to the vessel operator prior to stowing aboard a ship, because misdeclared container weights have contributed to the loss of containers overboard, the WSC said in a statement.