TT Talk - October 2025: IMO container inspections leave room for improvement

Seven countries that are members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) submitted data on 77,688 container inspections in 2024 in line with MSC.1/ Circ.1649. The intent of this IMO Circular is to encourage governments to identify misdeclarations and poor packing practices to “justify and effect safety improvements without an actual incident happening”. Since adoption of this iteration of guidance on inspections from IMO, reports have increased by more than 50% from approximately 51,000 in 2022 to 77,700 in 2024. Less positively, the number of IMO member states reporting has not increased.