Shipping Industry has Looming Weight Problem

“A new safety regulation from the International Maritime Organization requiring shippers to verify container weight is roiling exporters around the world,” the WSJ Logistics Report’s Loretta Chao writes. The shippers say the new requirements will add complexity to cargo handling and that getting containers accurately weighed at docks is too complicated to hold one party entirely responsible. But shippers may have no choice—carriers and port terminal operators say if shippers do not provide certified weight information by July 2016 when the rule kicks in, they will turn away containers at the gates or leave goods on shore. With wide variations in how container weight is set, misreported measures have led to accidents from toppling stacks of boxes to capsizing ships.

Source: Wall Street Journal