Guarding against complacency on safety

THE opening conference at Asia Pacific Maritime today is on container shipping and will focus on likely changes in the box trades in the era of megaconsortia and megaships. In general, we have become very used to huge vessels crossing the oceans. Not so long ago, many would have dismissed the idea of containerships reaching capacities in excess of 17,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units). That is now today's reality.

But every now and again, there are incidents that should warn against complacency and the attitude that all technical issues have been addressed. The 2007 hull failure and eventual break-up of the 4,734 TEU MSC Napoli was one such case. That focused attention on both structural strength and the need to know exactly what is in every container shipped.

Last year, the loss of the Bahamas- flagged 8,000 TEU MOL Comfort, thankfully without fatalities or serious injuries, once again put the issue of structural strength in the limelight. This was a large vessel by historic standards, but much smaller than the biggest now in service. She suffered a fracture amidships while crossing the Indian Ocean from Singapore to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on June 17. The ship subsequently split into two, which remained afloat and drifted for some days before eventually sinking.