Transport insurance provider TT Club has urged regulatory bodies to step up provisions to police the transport of dangerous cargo which will pose ever greater risks as trade volume and containership sizes increase.

Having suffered an estimated US$100 million loss in the explosion and fire aboard the Hyundai Fortune in the Gulf of Aden on the Far East to Europe run, the TT Club wants greater effort upholding international safety law in moving dangerous cargo.

If nation states will not conduct safety compliance inspections, then the industry itself - carriers, terminals, forwarders - must take on inspections themselves, TT Club risk management director Peregrine Storrs-Fox told a recent meeting of Britain's Nautical Institute.

"All contracts of carriage allow for carriers to inspect and charge back," he said. "What is monitored tends to be obeyed. Years ago major container consortia used to spot-check 10 per cent of shipments. Simple random checks, with penalty charges to errant customers could be an effective deterrent."

Mr Storrs-Fox also urged all parties in the supply chain to "know their customer" and argued that it was proper for forwarders and carriers to understand enough about their customers' business activities to identify whether dangerous goods may be involved.

Mr Storrs-Fox called on all parties involved in the supply chain to reduce non-compliance with the International Maritime Organisation's IMDG Code, which governs the sea transport of packaged dangerous goods.

Between five and 10 per cent of the world's container cargo was made up of dangerous goods, and the proportion was rising, he said. In 2006, 127.8 million TEU was carried, up 10 per cent over 2005, he said, indicating that declared dangerous goods shipments stood at between 6.4-13 million TEU.

He said the risks were high and rising, pointing to the 16 major containership casualties between 1998 and 2006 - two per a year.