TT Club provides mutual insurance and risk management services for containers.

Revised Guidelines for the Implementation of the Inspection of Cargo Transport Units (CTUs) issued last month by the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are aimed at helping governments to implement a uniform and safe inspection programme.

Governments are now requested to select from all cargo types, rather than declared dangerous goods.

"With the string of containership fire casualties and fatal incidents at storage facilities, most recently at Chittagong (Chattogram), in our minds, our current concerns are manifest," said TT Club risk management director Peregrine Storrs-Fox.

"They constantly remind us of the importance of adequate safety procedures in packing, handling, and transporting the array of cargo that have the potential to cause catastrophic incidents."

Only five of the 179 governments affiliated with IMO submitted reports on inspections at the last Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC) sub-committee meeting in September 2021.

"The international supply chains that service the trade in a myriad of commodities are complex and notoriously susceptible to disruption," said Mr Storrs-Fox.

"Congestion and delays increase the challenges involved in maintaining safety levels in an environment where the demand for reliable delivery of goods is high. Such circumstances require an even higher level of attention to safe practices," said Mr Storrs-Fox.

"The collection of information on the effective use and/or misuse of these practices needs to be enhanced by a much higher level of rigorous inspections and report submissions from governments, but working from the understanding that this is a shared problem."