As a result of the increase of incidents involving Iron Ore cargoes sometimes to fatal ends the Club has produced this quick and easy aide-memoire to assist, Masters, Owners and Surveyors in their day to day dealings with this commodity. In an effort to raise awareness the Club will be issuing paper copies of this document to all its Bulk Carrier Members.

Provision of information

The shipper must provide the master or his representatives appropriate information on the cargo sufficiently in advance of loading to enable precautions for proper stowage and safe carriage to be put into effect.

For iron ore fines (IOF) this includes:

• Cargo group (i.e. Group A – cargoes which may liquefy),
• Total quantity of cargo to be offered
• Stowage factor
• Need for trimming and trimming procedures
• Certificate of moisture content (MC) and its transportable moisture limit (TML)
• Likelihood of formation of a wet base in the holds due to moisture migration
• Identification of actual stockpiles for the cargo to be loaded

Certificates of test

The shipper has to arrange for the cargo to be properly sampled and tested to obtain the information required above

For IOF (i.e. Group A cargo) the shipper shall provide the ship’s master or his representative with a signed certificate of the TML and a signed certificate or declaration of the MC.

The certificate of TML shall contain, or be accompanied by, the result of the test for determining TML.

The declaration of the MC shall contain, or be accompanied by, a statement by the shipper that the MC is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the average MC of the cargo at the time the declaration is presented to the master.

The full document is available for download below.