Conference: Containers and Container Transportations. Topical Matters, Ideas, Solutions

Conference: Containers and Container Transportations. Topical Matters, Ideas, Solutions


At the beginning of the year, the Conference “Containers and Container Transportations. Topical Matters, Ideas, Solutions” arranged by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS, Register) was held in St. Petersburg.

This year the representatives of 95 container-related organisations came together at the professional forum. At the Conference, industry representatives from design organisations, manufacturers of equipment, materials and components, operating companies and scientific institutes had an opportunity to share best practices and discuss current issues of container transportation. 

The open dialogue facilitated promotion of initiatives, implementation of technical innovations and the search of joint decisions on the development of transport logistics and the industry in general.

At the Conference, a number of companies presented novel solutions. Inter alia and KOTTA-container spoke of an innovative technology for bulk cargo transhipment that uses a bottom discharge container designed for functioning as a freight car, storage and grapple.

Safe Technologies Industrial Group presented transport-refuelling complexes for space industry, including tank containers for rocket fuel transportation. ICT (Innovative Container Technology) introduced 20-foot ISO containers for transportation of packaged goods, liquid and bulk cargoes, which has an adaptable design that allows for changing of the cargo type.

Eurotainer reviewed the world market of tank containers mainly produced in China: 83 percent accounts for CIMC, Nantong Tank Containers, Singamas and CXIC Group. CIMC’s market share output amounts to 56 percent.

The development of the tank container market was reported by UNICON 1520, which specialises in the arrangement of transportation services and multimodal logistics of liquid cargoes, including dangerous goods.

Infotech Baltika M shared a two-year experience in pilot operation of a tank container made of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP). The container proved itself reliable, easy-to-operate and easy-to-repair, and demonstrated a number of predicted advantages against the steel equivalents. Even though this equipment is highly sought on the market of dangerous goods’ transportation, its application is not permitted in international marine transportation due to absence of the necessary international requirements. For addressing the issue, on behalf of the Russian Federation a note was sent to the UN Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (TDG Sub-Committee) related to introducing the applicable requirements to the UN Model Regulations and subsequently to the IMO normative documents. The document will be reviewed in UN on the 55th session of TDG Sub-Committee in late June – early July.

A representative of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) stated that the FRP application is currently central both for manufacture of tank containers and production of shut-off valves from these materials, since the service life of steel fittings is very short (one year on the average) and they require continuous replacement or repair. 

However, application and manufacture of the FRP fittings in Russia is restricted by the lack of the required normative documents, as well as of calculated and experimental justification for them. This problem may be solved by the experimental digital certification platform developed by Skoltech within the National Technology Initiative of Russia that is capable of creating digital models of the materials and products, predicting their condition and failure probability with regard to all possible flaws, estimated service damages and environmental impacts.

The conference focused on offshore containers since the development of oil-and-gas projects in open sea has resulted in a rapid growth of the sector. These containers are distinctly different from those of the ISO series as they are characterised with a high strength, reinforced frame, with capacity for operation in adverse conditions (reloading in open sea), they are not standardised by mass and dimensions, and therefore they are not covered by the Regulations on Transportation of Goods in Containers but by the requirements of MSC/Circ. 860, EN 12079 series standards, as well as ISO 10855 series standards developed with the RS participation and entered into force in 2018. 

However, the national normative documents shall be developed for their safe operation, containing, inter alia, the procedures for effective lashing of these containers on board the ship with regard to stability calculations, rolling criteria, etc.

For more information visit www.rs-class.org

24th June 2019

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