Launched in 2014 and incorporated as a registered association in 2018, the Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) is a global business-to-business network and industry association that is aiming to improve safety performance and management practices in the container shipping industry.
The shipping industry transports more than one third of the value of global trade, providing more than 4 million jobs, and faces a host of regulations and stakeholder expectations for safe operations.
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Vision. The Vision of Container Ship Safety Forum (CSSF) is a container shipping industry with high safety standards ensuring no harm is caused to people, ships, cargo and the environment.
Mission. CSSF members collaborate to advance the continuous improvement of safety culture and performance in the container shipping industry through measurement, reporting and benchmarking, sharing best practices and engaging with key stakeholders to develop durable solutions.
Anti Trust Statement. The policy of the CSSF and its Members is to conduct all of its activities in strict compliance with all applicable anti-trust and competition laws, in order to facilitate legitimate pro-competitive and other activities that help advance the objectives of the initiative. It is therefore against the policy of CSSF to sponsor, encourage or tolerate any discussion, communication, information sharing or agreement that would violate applicable anti-trust or competition laws.
Ordinary Membership is open for companies that hold a Document of Compliance (DOC) for managing fully cellular container vessels, where this forms a significant part of their business. Ordinary Members form the core of the CSSF and drive its direction and governance. They benefit from:
Associated Membership is open to selected organisations that support CSSF’s purpose and bring relevant expertise or perspectives to the forum. This include NGOs, classification societies, insurers, researchers, and safety solution providers. Associated Members contribute in an advisory capacity and are invited to participate in selective meetings, committees, or working groups. They do not have voting rights or access to confidential information.
Organisations interested in joining CSSF as members are welcome to reach out to the Secretariat for further information and application details.
The Vision of Container Ship Safety Forum (CSSF) is
a container shipping industry with high safety standards ensuring
no harm is caused to people, ships, cargo and the environment.
CSSF members collaborate through measurement, reporting and benchmarking, sharing best practices and engaging with key stakeholders to develop durable solutions.
CSSF has welcomed two new Associated Members: ShipIn Systems and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).
CSSF has welcomed its first four Associated Members: Resolve Marine, DNV, Wilhelmsen Ships Service and Lloyd’s Register.
To improve container safety and reduce operational risk, CSSF calls for verified gross mass (VGM) to be independently verified before loading.
The CSSF opens for Associated Memberships to strengthen collaboration on container ship safety
download the guide at the end of the article
download the paper at the end of the article
The CSSF welcomes the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian
CSSF calls on governments to restore safe merchant shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden
The lifeboat needs to be reinvented
Hamburg, 10 October 2025. The Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) is pleased to announce that ShipIn Systems and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) have joined as new Associated Members.
The Associated Membership category, introduced in 2025, allows the CSSF to involve key industry stakeholders beyond our ordinary members. With ShipIn Systems and ABS joining, CSSF continues to expand collaboration across the wider maritime industry and strengthen its role as a platform for improving safety performance and best practices in container shipping.
“We are delighted to welcome ShipIn Systems and ABS as Associated Members,” says Søren Thuen, First Chairman of the CSSF and representative of Maersk. “Their expertise in onboard AI risk management solutions and classification will bring valuable perspectives to our ongoing efforts to advance safety and operational excellence across the container sector.”
With these additions, the CSSF now counts six Associated Members, complementing its network of 29 ordinary members that together represent around half of the world’s fully cellular container ship capacity.
Hamburg, 07 October 2025. The Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) has taken an important step in its development by welcoming the first four Associated Members into the association. Resolve Marine, DNV, Wilhelmsen Ships Service and Lloyd’s Register have joined the forum with effect from September 2025.
Associated Membership is a new category created to broaden industry participation and enhance collaboration with key stakeholders beyond ship managers and owners. The four inaugural Associated Members represent leading expertise in classification, marine services, emergency response and global ship supply.
“The introduction of Associated Membership enables the CSSF to strengthen cooperation across the wider maritime industry. We are delighted to welcome Resolve Marine, DNV, Wilhelmsen Ships Service and Lloyd’s Register as our first Associated Members, and we look forward to their contributions to our shared work on safety performance and best practice in container shipping,” says Søren Thuen, First Chairman of the CSSF and representative of Maersk.
With the addition of the new Associated Members, CSSF continues to grow as a platform for exchange, benchmarking and collaboration. The forum’s members now include 30 ship managers and owners, alongside the newly introduced Associated Members.
The Container Ship Safety Forum (CSSF) has published a new position paper calling for independent third-party verification of Verified Gross Mass (VGM) as a critical step toward safer and more reliable container operations.
While SOLAS regulations have required declared VGM since 2016, the current system relies heavily on shipper self-declarations, often without independent control. Incident investigations has shown that a significant share of containers are loaded with incorrect weight information, contributing to poor stowage planning, stability issues, stack collapses, and container losses at sea.
In its position paper, the CSSF calls on stakeholders to work toward scalable, neutral verification processes, and to harmonize enforcement practices across jurisdictions.
For further information, please contact secretariat@cssf.global
Hamburg, 26 June 2025. The Container Ship Safety Forum (CSSF) is pleased to announce the launch of a new membership category: Associated Members. This initiative allows selected maritime stakeholders, such as classification societies, technology providers, research institutions, NGOs, and insurers, to formally advise and involve themselves in the CSSF community.
“Safety is a shared responsibility across the maritime industry. By welcoming trusted stakeholders in an advisory capacity, CSSF builds a broader platform for shared insight and practical progress, ultimately strengthening safety across the sector,” says Søren Thuen, First Chairman of CSSF and representative of Maersk.
“Expanding the CSSF network to include Associated Members is a natural step forward. Their perspectives can enrich our discussions and help us challenge assumptions, while keeping the focus on improving safety management practices,” says Swapnodeep Mondal, Second Chairman of CSSF and representative of Anglo-Eastern.
Associated Members may attend the open session of CSSF member meetings, take part in working groups and committees, and contribute in an advisory capacity.
Organisations interested in becoming Associated Members can contact the CSSF Secretariat to learn more and request an application form.
This new Guide to Safe Container Ship Operations is a strong indication of the CSSF’s commitment to continued improvement in safety. It objectively sets out the practices and procedures associated with safe container ship operations. These practices and procedures are meant to be challenging – but, having said that, in the vast majority of instances they are already being pursued by the CSSF’s members.
This Guide is not an inspection or audit checklist, nor is it a self-assessment document, and it is not intended to be a measure by which stakeholders may measure or compare one company with another. It is a living document that is expected to be periodically updated to reflect changing standards, requirements and expectations. The practices and procedures described in this guide can be successfully implemented – indeed, everything included in this guidance has been used and has helped to achieve desired improvements.
The CSSF believes that the container ship companies which work towards the successful implementation of the practices described will indeed achieve improved safety and performance standards.
The Guide to Safe Container Ship Operations is limited in its scope to personal and operational safety. The document does not include security, environmental or crew welfare issues except where there are direct safety implications.
The members of the Container Ship Safety Forum represent a diverse mix of container operations and as such recognise that Companies have different safety management objectives and different management systems. To support that this guidance document is intended to help container ship owners, operators and managers develop their own procedures that fit in with and compliment their own company cultures and management systems.
It is intended to be ambitious and help raise safety standards within the container sector but it is not intended to contain prescriptive procedures or instructions and should not be used in that way.
The members of CSSF are highly concerned about the many cargo fires onboard container ships originating from commodities that are carried inside the containers.
For the CSSF it is unacceptable that seafarers have to be concerned about their lives and wellbeing while doing their job due to dangerous cargo which is not managed responsibly by manufacturers, shippers and other parties in the supply chain.
Fire-fighting activities have one of the highest residual risks on board container ships and further mitigation is required both by developing preventive as well as resilience capacity in the supply chain and onboard vessels.
The CSSF does not want to be recognized as an extra regulator by setting new rules in addition to the existing ones, but wants to encourage with this paper Industry position on addressing container ship cargo fires all parties involved to look beyond minimum regulatory requirements.
Hamburg, 21 December 2023. The CSSF considers the establishment of the military coalition “Operation Prosperity Guardian” to be an essential step in addressing the current threat situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and commends the participating nations for their commitment in ensuring the safety of merchant shipping in the area.
Hamburg, 18 December 2023. The Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) urges governments worldwide to restore safe merchant shipping in international waters of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The International Community must take all necessary measures immediately to ensure that ships' crews, assets and cargo remain unharmed when transiting the area.
Hamburg, 08 May 2023. Lifeboats are an essential part of crew safety onboard every vessel but seafarers are way too often getting injured when launching the lifeboat. Instead of focusing on how to improve the lifeboat itself, focus has been on compliance and training. Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF) calls for a reinvention of the lifeboat onboard cargo vessels.
Over the years, many seafarers have been injured – some of them fatally – while launching the lifeboat during evacuations or evacuation drills. Not because the lifeboats have not been compliant with safety standards, but simply because the launch of a lifeboat is a dangerous task to perform.
“We need to reinvent the lifeboat and its launching equipment onboard cargo vessels. For way too long, we have seen able seafarers being injured when launching lifeboats even though crews have been trained and the lifeboat is modern and fully compliant,” says Aslak Ross, Chairman of the CSSF. “Everyone knows we have a problem; seafarers are scared to launch lifeboats; however, no one has offered a plausible path towards a solution to the problem for cargo vessels. A change is needed to provide a safe environment for seafarers and to regain trust in lifesaving equipment,” he adds.
Known problem: In 2017, the UK Chamber of Shipping issued an article ‘Lifeboat drills: We need to save lives, not lose them’ in which they identified 60 fatalities during testing of lifeboats over a 10-year period. In the article, it was stated that simulation training could improve safety.
“Simulation and use of new technology is one way to conduct drills in a safer environment, and we support the intent to reduce the risk of accidents, however, it does not solve the core of the problem: Launching a lifeboat is too dangerous. And even though simulation has its advantages, it should only be used as a supplement to well-conducted onboard abandon ship drills where crews are familiarized with the ship specific equipment,” says Aslak Ross.
In the so-called hierarchy of controls – a 5-level system widely used in industries to minimize or eliminate exposure to hazards – training is on second lowest level to minimize risks, while removing and replacing the hazards are considered the two most effective actions to eliminate risks.
Therefore, the CSSF encourages the industry, classification societies, flag states and suppliers to launch innovation to replace current lifeboats with a safer technology. Alternative designs are already available for offshore installations and for passenger evacuation on PAX vessels through Marine Evacuation Systems (MES) and the like.
“Such systems should also be made available to cargo vessels without delay. It is long overdue to change the current environment and innovate to eliminate the risk of lifeboat accidents. We need approved systems that can be fitted to newbuildings – we need to safeguard our seafarers,” says Aslak Ross.
The Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. is governed by the Member Meeting and by a member-elected Management Board. The current Management Board consists of First Chairman Søren Thuen (DPA & Head of Safety, Nautical & Assurance, Maersk A/S) and Second Chairman Swapnodeep Mondal (Group Director, Operations, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management Ltd.).
Further, the CSSF e.V. has contracted a Secretariat for administration and management tasks. The Secretariat is operated by Claas-Heye Diekmann and Runa A. Skarbø of ACG Azure Campfire GmbH, located in Hamburg, Germany.
Both the Management Board and the Secretariat can be contacted using the form below.
Organisations interested in joining CSSF as members are welcome to reach out to the Secretariat for further information and application details.
