U.K. P&I CLUB WARNS OF SANTOS CARGO THEFTS

U.K. P&I CLUB WARNS OF SANTOS CARGO THEFTS    The U.K. P&I Club, based in London, has alerted its members to a heightened risk of theft from containers at the Port of Santos, Brazil, after three incidents in the last six months resulting in a total cargo loss of $1.56 million.
   In all three cases, which involved computer-related, high-tech shipments, the seals on the containers were checked immediately before loading and immediately upon landing at Santos. The landing inspection revealed that two of the containers had seals that had been changed, and that one container has its seals missing entirely.
   Signum Services Ltd., the U.K. Club’s investigative unit, found the cargo had been shipped in cartons and stowed in 40-foot containers below deck. As stowed, there was a gap between the container door and the ship’s gangway railings that was wide enough “to allow a man to enter the container and slip the cartons through the open door,” a U.K. Club statement said.
   The containers from which the cargo had been stolen had been stowed near or adjacent to empty containers, making it easier and quicker for the thieves to conceal the cargo.
   A check by Brazilian Customs found much of the computer components stolen in the third incident to have been stashed in empty containers discharged from the same vessel on which the cargo arrived.
   The club made further inquiries and found that stevedores at Santos were receiving advance details about arriving containers with valuable cargoes, as well as the stowage positions of empty container used for discharge. During the 12 hours or more of a vessel’s berthing, the stevedores worked unseen below deck, stripping loaded containers and transferring the goods into empty boxes. The empties would later leave the terminal without undergoing security checks applied to loaded containers.
   The club recommends that 20-foot boxes be used to carry Santos-bound cargo, so that two containers could be stowed door-to-door in a 40-foot stow. It also advised that boxes of valuable cargo be carried above deck.