The move will ensure that business using the ports will be able to comply with new legislation – due on 1 July, 2016 - requiring all sea containers to be issued with a Verified Gross Mass (VGM) certificate before being loaded onto a vessel.   

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has adopted an amendment to the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations to require that shippers of goods, including household effects, obtain the VGM of packed containers and communicate it to the ocean carriers sufficiently in advance of the ship stow planning.  

The regulation will be mandatory for all IMO member states ocean carriers and container terminal operators will be legally obliged to ensure that containers without a VGM are not loaded onto a ship. The objective of the regulation is to prevent serious accidents at sea where a ship’s stability is compromised by wrongly declared cargo weight.   

Ganesh Raj, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director for DP World Europe & Russia said, “From our contacts with UK exporters, freight forwarders and shipping lines it is clear that the industry in general is finding it challenging to be ready to provide the VGM of containers and without alternative solutions provided by our container terminals, this could become a significant logistics barrier for UK exports and world trade generally.”   

DP World’s announcement follows similar initiatives by the port operators at Tilbury and Felixstowe.  None of the organisations have yet revealed the cost of providing the service to shippers.  

We asked DP World if it intended to introduce container weighing facilities at any of its other ports around the world, but did not get a response.

Photo: DP World London Gateway.