Precautions required for the sea transport of hazardous goods

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As is well known, due to the hazards such as explosiveness, flammability, toxicity, corrosivity, and radioactivity associated with hazardous materials, they pose a potential threat to human safety. Completing the task of transporting these materials requires high levels of technical skill and expertise; even the slightest carelessness during transportation can result in losses to lives, property, and the environment. So, what are the things to keep in mind when transporting hazardous goods by sea? Let the editor from Shunxin Logistics take you to find out! 1. The shipment and declaration of hazardous goods should be handled in a realistic manner; it is important to avoid failing to declare them, underreporting them, misreporting them, or providing false information. Due to the high requirements for their transportation, dangerous goods also have higher shipping costs compared to ordinary goods. Under the system of independent accounting and self-financing, we must take into account both the costs associated with accounting and the need to reduce expenses, as well as risk factors to ensure shipping safety; these two aspects need to be addressed simultaneously. In daily work, when shipping hazardous goods, there have indeed been cases where shipowners or freight forwarders attempted to save on shipping costs by sending hazardous goods as ordinary cargo. There are also some shipowners and freight forwarders who lack the knowledge and experience necessary for transporting hazardous goods, and as a result they send goods that should not be transported as hazardous goods; this not only results in wasted shipping costs but also creates many unnecessary problems. This phenomenon should be overcome and corrected. Shunxin Logistics reminds that items not listed in the Dangerous Goods List of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code are not necessarily not dangerous goods. It is well understood that to determine whether a substance is considered a hazardous material, various factors such as its concentration, production process, physical and chemical properties, and degree of hazard must be taken into account; it cannot be determined solely based on the name of the substance. And goods that are not listed in the \"Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals\" formulated jointly by six ministries in 2015 are not necessarily not hazardous goods. This is the difference between hazardous materials and dangerous goods: the standards are different, the definitions are different, and the requirements and precautions in international maritime transportation also vary. II. The procedures for transporting hazardous goods and their packaging must be carried out in strict accordance with the relevant port regulations. The Ministry of Transport has many regulations regarding the loading, unloading, and transportation of hazardous goods, and the enforcement agencies at various ports are the port authorities. The following two provisions set by the Port Authority must be strictly complied with by shippers, freight forwarders and ship agents, as well as carriers. Those who submit the \"Declaration Form for the Safe Transport of Packaged Dangerous Goods\" and the \"Declaration Form for Ships Carrying Dangerous Goods\" must be full-time declarants who have received specialized training from the port authorities, passed the relevant assessments, and obtained a declaration certificate. The container loading points for dangerous goods must be approved in advance by the port authorities. There must be a supervisor responsible for overseeing the loading of dangerous goods containers, and this supervisor needs to receive specialized training from the port authorities and pass an assessment to obtain a certification for such supervision. When transporting dangerous goods in containers, it is necessary to submit a \"Declaration of Safe and Proper Shipping of Packaged Dangerous Goods\" (goods declaration) to the port authorities, based on the statement provided at the packing site. After the container is loaded, the loading supervisor must sign the \"Certificate of Loading of Dangerous Goods in a Container\" and submit it to the port authorities for record-keeping without delay. The packing point and the signature of the packing supervisor – must be identical to those recorded with the port authorities; never sign incorrectly to avoid unnecessary troubles. III. Ships carrying dangerous goods must meet certain requirements; in particular, ships carrying highly dangerous goods must possess a certificate of inspection issued by the ship regulatory authorities. For the shipment of highly dangerous goods, it is necessary to first confirm whether the vessel is suitable for carrying such goods, in order to avoid delays in the loading schedule due to having to return the goods after ship assignment. IV. Pay attention to the special regulations of the transshipment port. Currently, the maritime transport of many hazardous goods requires transshipment at key ports such as **, Klang, Singapore, and Tanjung Pelepas. These transshipment ports have specific regulations and requirements regarding the entry, exit, and transfer of hazardous goods, and many types of such goods are prohibited from being transshipped. For dangerous goods that must be transshipped at the two aforementioned alley entrances, it is necessary to contact the relevant shipping companies prior to the conclusion of the contract to inquire whether transshipment is possible at those two ports, in order to avoid unnecessary breaches of contract.