News / Better education on cargo declarations needed to prevent more containership fires

After the first boxship fire of the year was deemed to have been caused by misdeclared lithium batteries, forwarders have warned that shippers need to be better educated about cargo declarations, or face increased regulation.

According to Chinese shipping line Cosco, the fire onboard its 10,000 teu Cosco Pacific this month was caused by lithium batteries falsely declared as spare parts.

Two containers were destroyed and a number of adjacent boxes damaged. The vessel only resumed its voyage to India from Malaysia’s ...