Last year, over 10% of cargo units inspected by government authorities were found to have safety issues, revealing ongoing challenges in how containers are declared, packed, and secured before shipping.
According to the World Shipping Council, officials from seven countries checked 93,079 cargo units in 2025, discovering deficiencies in 9,645 of them, which equals a rate of 10.36%.
The problems varied from incorrect paperwork, labeling, and marking to poor packing and inadequate securing of cargo. These issues can lead to damaged goods, containers falling overboard, and fires at sea.
“Finding safety problems in over one out of ten inspected units is too high,” said Joe Kramek, President and CEO of the World Shipping Council. “Proper declaration, packing, securing, and marking are essential safety obligations. When these are ignored, lives are at risk.”
While the 2025 rate improved from 11.39% in 2024, it is still higher compared to much of the past decade.
Deficiency rates were 8.64% in 2017, 8.40% in 2018, and dropped to 6.54% in 2019. However, since 2021, the rate has been above 10% in three out of five years, including 11% in 2023 and 11.39% in 2024.
These findings come as the container shipping industry continues to deal with fires related to improperly declared or packed cargo.
In June, the WSC noted data from Allianz Commercial indicating that a container ship fire happens about every 17 days worldwide. Misdeclared cargo, such as chemicals and lithium-ion batteries, is a significant cause of these incidents.
Incorrect declarations can be particularly dangerous at sea because they might lead to hazardous containers being stored in inappropriate locations. They also leave crews without crucial information during emergencies like fires.
This issue has gained attention as shipments of lithium-ion batteries have increased. Fires involving batteries can be hard to manage once they reach thermal runaway, and the largest container ships today can carry over 20,000 containers, complicating detection and firefighting efforts.
The inspection data was reported to the International Maritime Organization by Chile, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States.
However, only seven of the IMO's 170+ member states reported their inspection results for 2025, raising further concerns.
“Countries need to enforce cargo safety regulations through effective inspections,” Kramek said. “It’s worrying that only seven Member States submitted results. More governments should report their inspections to help consistently identify risks and take action.”
The limited reporting means that the 10.36% figure shouldn't be seen as a failure rate for all containers in the global supply chain. It only reflects the deficiencies found in the inspected units submitted by these seven countries.
After the IMO stopped its annual consolidated report in 2024, the WSC began compiling and publishing the inspection results.
The group is also working to identify dangerous cargo before it reaches the ship.
Last year, the WSC launched its Cargo Safety Program, which combines shared screening technology, standardized inspection methods, and feedback from physical inspections to detect potentially misdeclared or undeclared dangerous goods.
A key part of the program is a digital screening system developed by the National Cargo Bureau. This system scans container bookings for keywords, trade patterns, and other risk indicators. Suspicious bookings are then reviewed by carriers and may be targeted for physical inspection.
This initiative has identified shipments where the descriptions did not match the actual contents, such as cargo listed only as “hand tools” that actually contained lithium-ion battery-powered equipment needing special handling.
With about one in ten inspected units still showing deficiencies, these recent figures indicate that basic cargo safety issues are far from resolved.