One year has passed since the Yangtze River Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as Law) took effect on March 1, 2021 (CL news), which imposed bans on the waterway transport of highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals that are prohibited from inland waterway transport by the State in the Yangtze River basin. On April 29, 2022, the Pudong Maritime Safety Administration (MSA), which is the subordinate unit of the Shanghai MSA, held a virtual forum to review the management of dangerous good shipping in Waigaoqiao Port according to the Law throughout 2021.
Supervision in 2021
Mr. Wang Kejing, an official from Government Affairs Center of the Pudong MSA, shared that in 2021 the Pudong MSA has:
Reviewed a total of 443,000 import/export declarations of DG cargoes shipped via the Waigapqiao Port;
Carried out more than 150 inspections of attached documents (e.g., SDS) and over 200 out-of-box audits of dangerous goods containers;
Detected the first case of illegal transportation of DG cargoes prohibited in the Yangtze River basin; and
Intercepted 34 cases of illegal transportation of embargoed DG cargoes in Yangtze River basin entering or leaving the jurisdictional waters, etc.
Implementation of Four-step Interception
Step.1 - Verify the declarations comprehensively
Step.2 - Identify the nature of the suspected embargoed DG cargoes
Step.3 - Track the shipping dynamics of the embargoed DG cargoes
Step.4 - Punish in accordance with the Law and implement Integrity Score Management to supervise and incent the declaration of DG cargoes
The Waigaoqiao Port under the jurisdiction of Pudong MSA is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It’s also one of the busiest ports in Shanghai Port. Mr. Wang addressed that the “four-step interception” had built the first pass for approval of dangerous goods shipping through this port.
Ingredients Disclosure Requirements on Dangerous Goods Shipping
On this virtual forum, Mr. Wang interpreted the requirement of 100% component information on the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and pointed out the precautions for the declaration. For these issues, ChemLinked had prepared two articles early this year to help facilitate your understanding and provide some compliance suggestions:
Considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, the authority prescribed the declaration requirements for DG cargoes rerouting to the Yangshan Port as well, such as:
For dangerous goods with any of the 7 hazard properties (e.g., explosiveness, flammability, toxicity, infectivity, corrosiveness, radioactivity, etc.) which pose a high risk to human health and the environment, shippers shall submit the confirmation of security measures for changing to the rerouting port;
For ships boarded with DG cargoes that intend to reroute to Yangshan Port, shipping agencies shall re-declare the ships to the authority. However, the declaration of the DG cargoes in such ships is still valid and the receipt number of the previous approval can be used.
If you have any questions regarding this issue, please feel free to contact ChemLinked.
