A recent survey in Antwerp revealed that hot rolled coils were contaminated with asbestos. The cargo was shipped out of Bayuquan (China).
The cause of the contamination appears to be that while the coils were still hot they were placed on fire resistant material. This fire resistant material contained asbestos fibres, which contaminated the hot rolled coils.
According to the surveyor, a lot of discussions are presently going on between owners and charterers regarding whether this contamination was visible at the time of loading or not. In the surveyor’s opinion, the contamination of the hot rolled coils may have been visible at the time of loading and thus remarks should have been entered in the B/L.
Furthermore, he told us there were severe problems in Antwerp during the discharge operation of the steel coils because the contamination had to be removed from all the coils prior to being discharged on the Antwerp berth, resulting in substantial work and huge costs. The cleaning of the coils was reportedly carried out under the supervision of Bureau Veritas.
Skuld strongly advises members and charterers to contact the club for assistance with a pre-loading survey prior to calling at Bayuquan.