- The maritime industry is working on new common specifications for container stowage data, namely structured information on the positions, weights, types and securing of cargo on board ships, with the aim of making it interoperable between carriers, terminals and port authorities.
- The creation of standards responds to three needs: reducing incidents linked to incorrect weight declarations or positioning errors, improving integration with advanced digital systems such as port community systems and logistics 4.0 platforms, and cutting operating costs caused by delays and rework.
- At present, there is still no single, definitive regulatory document. The sector is in the process of defining minimum data field sets, standards for nomenclatures and integration into existing digital flows, with a technical basis built on established ISO standards for container identification.
A new industry initiative aims to create a standard for container stowage data, the structured set of information describing how containers are loaded, positioned and secured on board container ships. The news, reported by Splash247, indicates that several operators in the maritime sector are working to define common specifications for representing these data, with the aim of making them interoperable between the systems used by carriers, terminals and competent authorities. Stowage data include all information describing the cargo configuration on board: bay, row and tier positions, gross weight per unit, type of contents, such as refrigerated goods, dangerous goods and out-of-gauge cargo, stacking plan, loading and unloading sequence, and securing methods. Today these data are often managed through proprietary or poorly harmonised formats, a situation that generates errors, delays and difficulties in integrating with more advanced planning and tracking systems.
The drive towards new standards stems from three factors: safety, efficiency and digitalisation. On the safety side, several incidents linked to incorrect weight declarations or errors in the positioning and securing of containers have highlighted the need for more reliable information to be shared across the entire supply chain. In terms of efficiency and digitalisation, intelligent tracking systems, port community systems and logistics 4.0 solutions require a consistent data layer to automate checks, optimise stowage plans and feed predictive models on risk and congestion.
The initiative involves several industrial players and probably trade associations, in a similar way to what has already happened with other standards in the maritime-port supply chain. Its scope concerns the definition of which data fields should always be present, such as weight, dimensions, type of goods and dangerousness, how they should be coded, and in which formats they should be exchanged between the systems used by port terminal operators, shipping companies, customs platforms and hinterland operators. The aim is to build a common language at global level.
The history of physical container standards, with ISO standards such as 668 and later specifications, has already shown how a shared set of specifications can generate strong network effects in global logistics, reducing transaction costs and increasing compatibility between equipment and infrastructure. The stowage data initiative operates on a different level, informational rather than physical, but the logic is similar: creating a common basis that enables all players to work with the same information, also with a view to possible future regulatory requirements on safety, traceability and digital reporting.
There are already several technical and regulatory references on which the new proposals can build. ISO standards on container identification, particularly standard 6346 and subsequent updates, define codes and markings relating to owner, serial number, dimensions and type in a structured way, providing the basis for any subsequent harmonisation of operational information. Guidelines on container packing and loading safety instead define roles, the chain of responsibility and operational requirements, setting a reference for the data that should always be available and shared along the logistics chain.
For carriers, greater harmonisation could mean fewer errors in loading plans, lower costs linked to rework or delays, and a better ability to use algorithms that optimise weight, stability and fuel consumption, especially on large fleets. For ports and terminals, more uniform stowage data can improve the quality of information available before a ship arrives, strengthening the pre-planning of operations, the allocation of resources such as cranes, yard slots and staff, and the management of interfaces with rail and road operators, with benefits for vessel dwell times and the overall fluidity of the hub.
The link with the digitalisation of logistics as a whole is direct. Analyses of intelligent container tracking show that integrating physical data, such as sensors, IoT devices and onboard systems, with administrative and operational data, such as bookings, manifests and stowage plans, is essential to increase transparency and real-time management capability. Standardising stowage data means these information flows can be more easily combined with data from other segments of the logistics chain.
At present, the sector is still at the initiative stage rather than dealing with a consolidated standard. No publicly available documents appear to be comparable to a published ISO standard or to detailed guidelines from a body such as the IMO (International Maritime Organization) specifically dedicated to stowage data. However, the impression emerging from the available technical sources is that minimum data field sets are being defined, work is under way to harmonise nomenclatures and coding, and discussions are taking place on how to incorporate this information into existing digital flows, without all this yet being crystallised into a single definitive regulatory document.
M.G.
