FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2011
CONTACT:
Jennifer Sargent, 503-703-2933
Craig Merrilees, 510-774-5325
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Officials at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are taking steps to identify, segregate, de-energize and prevent potentially explosive refrigerated shipping containers from moving inland from overseas ports and posing risks to the public. Shipping industry officials have revealed in recent days that thousands of potentially explosive refrigerated shipping containers, or “reefers,” are being transported around the globe, and that explosions have resulted in at least three fatalities.
Many of the potentially explosive containers are being quarantined in various locations around the world, but questions remain about what to do with potentially at-risk containers after they arrive on the docks. The suspect reefers are those that have transited Vietnam in the last year.
“It’s impossible to know which containers might pose deadly combustion hazards just by looking at them,” said Leal Sundet, ILWU Coast Committeeman. “Our union is looking out for the safety of our members — and for the safety of the public — by insisting that any dangerous containers be identified and removed from circulation before another person is killed. The terminal operators need to put safety first and work with us to ensure that only safe containers leave the docks.”
ILWU officials have offered to transload import and export cargo from potentially dangerous containers to safe containers before they leave the terminal on trucks, rail cars or vessels. Union officials in Oakland, Calif., asked for complete transit documentation for all refrigerated units in order to identify those containers that have transited Vietnam in the last year. The union wants these suspect containers to be removed from circulation until more information surrounding the cause of the explosions can be ascertained. Work stopped on October 29 at the Port of Oakland’s SSA terminal and on October 30 at its TraPac terminal over a dispute on the level of information transparency that the terminal operators were willing to extend.
The explosion risk in reefers has been a major issue in recent days in the shipping world. On October 26, World Cargo News (WCN) reported that about a dozen exploding reefers have so far “been linked to refrigeration units that had received gas repairs in Vietnam and are potentially affected by what is suspected to be the introduction of contaminated or otherwise unsuitable refrigerant gas into the system that causes a chemical reaction when it comes into contact with R134a, oil or air, creating a flammable/explosive mixture.”
“Reports of compressor explosions and incidents of spontaneous combustion have resulted in at least three fatalities,” reported WCN.
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