The president Reginald Lee opened the meeting, reminding delegates why almost 2 years ago @tco was established. First, to promote the safe use of the tank container in the new emerging Asian markets; and second to promote the tank container to customers as a safe, reliable and cost effective way to distribute liquid products, by road, rail and sea.
Lee added that the @tco depot audit scheme is now being accepted in many Asian countries as a way of obtaining a standard depot service. This scheme has only been established for a short period and already there are many depots successfully audited in China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with more requesting audits every month.
@tco is now working together with AICM in Shanghai to allow that body access to the tco depot audit results for the benefit of its chemical company members. Graham Wood, @tco’s technical director went into greater detail of how the audit scheme works in his presentation at the meeting.
Other speakers at the meeting were: Ken Tsang, senior advisor, Responsible Care Committee, at AICM (Association of International Chemical Manufacturers); Ricky Zhou, managing director, Hoyer Sinobulk Transport; Lidia Li-Dong, BASF Greater China; Ng Yong Jin, general manager, Shanghai Stolt-Kingman Tank Container Transportation Ltd, Shanghai.
At the meeting’s conclusion Lee said tank containers are now accepted for domestic distribution in China, but the association and industry need to work with the chemical companies through their own associations to get access to Chinese railways for long distance shipments by tanks.
“We must ensure we have safe handling and legal waste disposal; we cannot just leave this problem to the depots and hope they do the right thing, it must be audited,” he added. “Tank container depots must be encouraged to meet acceptable chemical company standards, all @tco members should support the depots that have been audited and encourage other depots that they use to follow this lead.”