Record: last year ships lost only 221 containers at sea

In 2023, the number of containers lost at sea became a record low.

Last year, ships lost 221 containers at sea out of 250 million containers carried, the lowest figure since 2008, according to the World Shipping Council (WSC) annual report.

“Reducing the number of containers lost at sea is a positive trend, but it does not reduce the urgency of our work, as each such container is a potential danger,” the World Shipping Council emphasized.

Also read: ZIM invests in container tracking devices.

In particular, it is known that in 2022, 250 million containers were transported in the world, during this period 661 containers were lost at sea.

From 2008 to 2022, an average of 1.5 thousand containers were lost at sea per year.

A high rate of loss of containers was recorded in 2013 – almost 6 thousand (from the MOL Comfort container ship – almost 4.3 thousand containers).

In 2020, almost 4 thousand containers were lost, including 1.5 thousand containers from ONE Apus and 750 from Maersk Essen.

As previously reported by USM, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has required carriers to report on containers lost at sea from 2026. Such amendments were made to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).