the stability and safety of container ships

In a bid to counter widespread misdeclaration of container weight, the International Maritime Organization has placed the responsibility for ensuring the correct weight of loaded boxes with shippers. Through the IMO’s Safety of Life at Sea convention, shippers from 162 countries that are signatories to SOLAS will have to provide the verified gross mass of each loaded container to the terminal and carrier or the container won’t be loaded.

But with just four months before the regulation takes effect, the rule remains a moving target, with official sources releasing confusing information and doing little to calm industry nerves. The rule “could raise already chronic congestion at the ports that are slowed by chassis management issues, higher cargo loads from larger vessels and inadequate inland or intermodal links,” Fitch Ratings warned in a recent research note to investors.

Many shippers are calling for a delay of up to a year to the amendment but the U.S., Canada and Europe have shown no indication they will ask the IMO for more time. Russia, however, said it plans to ask the IMO for more breathing room, while China has been silent, with reports that some ports are preparing for enforcement and others are ignoring it.

In basic terms, it's a mess. And the thing about chains is that if just one link is broken then you don't have a chain. And this is regarding one rule from one institution in one industry.

And what has this got to do with Brexit? The answer is, not a lot. All it shows is that the EU is not alone in making a pigs ear of regulations. But what we can assume is that these regulations haven't simply appeared from the ether. The shipping companies themselves will have had a say.

The big drive is to improve safety and bring down insurance costs, in which stacking order plays a huge part in the stability and safety of container ships. There is reason to oppose it in principle. What matters is the roll-out and the deadlines. The are huge costs and considerable externalities.

In this, national governments have their own part to play, and we can be sure the EU had something to say to about it. And this is why I would advise caution in assuming Brexit is a silver bullet. Regulatory issues do not vanish, nor can we simply walk away from this very necessary task.

What it suggests to me is that the International Maritime Organisation is every bit as dysfunctional as the EU and if there ever was a case for pooled sovereignty, it is not over nations, but over ports - globally. It should be clear by now that shipping is major need of reforms and the industry is overdue a huge correction that simply isn't happening fast enough.