A number of serious incidents involving vessel stability and loss of containers are suspected to be due to unknown or misdeclared container weights and important changes to SOLAS regarding container weight verification will come into force on 1 July 2016.
In short, the shipper of a packed container will be obliged to verify and provide the container's gross weight to the carrier and terminal prior to loading and unless these requirements are met the container shall not be loaded and carried.
There are two optional ways for the shipper to comply with the verification requirements and the World Shipping Council has made an outline which we recommend our members and clients to study.
On their web page there are links to the new regulations and they have also made a summary of the new requirements.
Source: World Shipping Council