Container Losses At Sea More Than Doubled In 2025, Says World Shipping Council Report

The number of containers lost at sea more than doubled in 2025, according to the World Shipping Council’s latest Containers Lost at Sea Report.

The report states that 1,478 containers were lost overboard out of approximately 280 million containers transported worldwide.

This is equivalent to 0.0005% of global container movements, an increase from 576 containers lost in 2024.

However, the increase was due to a few major incidents rather than a deterioration in safety standards within the container shipping industry.

One ship casualty, the MSC ELSA 3, which sank off Kochi, India, accounted for 640 lost containers, making about 43% of all containers lost in 2025.

The report mentioned that the increase was due to isolated high-impact events as well as weather, cargo shifts, and stack collapses.

The World Shipping Council said that rough weather conditions in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific, and unpredictable storms were the principal contributors to container losses.

Other factors which played a role included total vessel losses and fire-related incidents.

Still, container losses are rare compared to the scale of global trade.

A positive trend has been container recovery, where 128 containers were recovered in 2025, the highest since the World Shipping Council began tracking recoveries from 2023, reflecting improved coordination between shipping companies and authorities.

The report was published after amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) came into effect on January 1, 2026.

These mandate that all containers lost or observed drifting at sea must be reported, and flag states must also report annual container losses to the International Maritime Organisation.

The WSC welcomed the new amendments and said it would improve maritime safety.

The council also mentioned ongoing programs to reduce container losses, including the AI-powered Cargo Safety Program, which helps identify misdeclared dangerous goods before they are loaded on a vessel.