A third of lashing of ?poor to moderate? quality

A recent inspection campaign concentrating on cargo securing has unearthed a disturbing catalogue of safety issues. The campaign, by Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) port state control authorities, found that a third of ships inspected had “poor to moderate quality” lashing material. In the 31% of cases where the lashing material was found to be of suspect quality, it was often the twistlocks that failed to come up to standard. The campaign also found that one in ten ships either had a lashing plan contravening that dictated in the vessel?s cargo securing manual or had cargo secured in a way not approved by the lashing plan. In all cases where issues for concern were found, the port state control officer took measures to rectify the situation. During the three-month campaign 1,072 inspections were carried out and 16 ships were detained on grounds of poor cargo securing. The Paris MOU has indicated it will continue to target ships carrying cargo requiring securing. It will pay special attention to the quality of lashing material and the lashing plan in its inspections. The targeted campaign took place from March 1 to May 31 in ports across the Paris MOU region. This consists of 19 maritime administrations and covers the waters of the European coastal nations and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe. The organisation aims to eliminate the operation of sub-standard ships through a harmonised system of port state control (PSC). The inspection was carried out onboard all ships subject to PSC examination and carrying cargo which required securing.