Container localization product
According to the World Shipping Council, less than 2,000 containers go overboard each year. But this number is misleading. The WSC only counts cases that have become officially known. There is a high number of unreported cases, as accidents of this type are still not required to be reported to this day. It is estimated that more than 10,000 containers disappear at sea every year.
Many containers sink immediately because they are badly damaged by falling from the ship. Other containers remain floating on the surface. According to estimates by ship insurers, it takes an average of three months for a floating container to be so badly damaged by the sea until it sinks.
The World Shipping Organization IMO describes containers which have gone overboard as a danger to shipping and the environment. A collision with a floating container can cause significant structural damage to ships, especially smaller vehicles. Further, containers with environmentally harmful contents, including so-called “plastic pellets”, must be found and recovered as quickly as possible.
During its conference in May 2021, the IMO decided to include the topic of container security on its agenda. Meanwhile, the IMO has been put under pressure (see: Report from Spiegel Business) to pass and implement a legal regulation in the short term. On the one hand, a reporting obligation for lost containers is to be introduced, and on the other hand, technical options are to be explored for locating lost containers.
SaferSea fulfills exactly this requirement of the IMO. With SaferSea, containers are tracked and monitored by satellite at sea and through 5G technology on land. If a container equipped with our system falls overboard, the monitoring center is automatically informed. It receives the exact position of the container via satellite. Even if the container sinks, our system reports the position so that it can be recovered up to a depth of 1000 meters.
