The shipping industry has been horrified to hear of the tragic incident that occurred in Tianjin. The cause of the original fire and subsequent explosions remain uncertain, but seem to reflect a usual chain of events that start with economic opportunity, misunderstandings and compromised standards, undermining measures for control or prevention.

The recent tragic events in Tianjin have amply shown the importance of correct and effective segregation of dangerous goods. But those involved in the movement of dangerous goods have far more to consider, and the industry as a whole should make a sanguine risk assessment of all aspects of the supply chain to engender safety.

TT Club has for many years made available various model conditions to support Members' activities. The range of available conditions has recently been supplemented with revised Standard Trading Conditions for Freight Forwarders for operators in Australia to take into account various legislative developments.

The regime governing maintenance and inspection of ships' lifting appliances (SLA) has been found less than adequate, resulting in incidents that should have been avoidable. Legislative change will take time; in the meantime, operators and supervisors need to take care. See

It is not uncommon during terminal operations - in the yard and on the ship - for the spreader, or the container attached thereto, to collide with stacked containers. Often resulting from operator error, such incidents can be extremely costly and cause serious operational difficulties. This is another hazard which has now been effectively engineered out through the development of stack profiling technology.

Boom anti-collision electronic sensor technology has been readily available for use on quay cranes for a number of years. The introduction of such technology has undoubtedly been a positive development in terms of both safety and mitigating potential losses.

The simplicity of the revision to mandate verification of gross mass is typical of the nature of the 'box'. There are multiple parties who bear levels of responsibility to ensure that the venture is successful, many of whom have little perception of all the other parties and how they may rely on each other. Weighing may be more than first meets the eye.

As should be expected when regulations are tightened, attention is turning to solution providers to deliver accurate measurement of gross mass at various points through the container supply chain. TT Club would welcome hearing from potential providers so as to keep its membership informed.

Returning to a subject that has been covered not infrequently in this newsletter* as the industry approaches the twelve month mark before mandated verification of gross mass of containers enters into force on 1 July 2016, we provide commentary on emerging good practice.

Motivated by claims experience and changes in Chinese law and practice, TT Club has added to its range of model conditions an International Freight Forwarding Agency Agreement, produced in both Chinese and English. This is freely available to TT Club Members.

Weather seems to be a common theme around the globe at present. In tropical regions, the 'official' storm seasons have either just started (Eastern Pacific) or will do shortly (North Atlantic), although early activity was seen with the first named Atlantic storm, Ana, in early May. This comes on the back of series of powerful thunderstorms across the US and recent memory of significant winter storms across Europe. Simple advice: always be prepared!

Customs claims brought against freight forwarders have always been part of the tapestry of issues handled and covered by the TT Club. However, by way of alert, there has been a noticeable increase in claims involving the evasion of Anti-Dumping Duty ('ADD'). Most seem to result from investigations made by the European Anti-Fraud Office (known as 'OLAF', from its French name Office de Lutte Anti-Fraude).