IBC Code is the ‘International Code for the construction and equipment of ships carrying dangerous chemicals in bulk and index of dangerous chemicals carried in bulk’, published by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The purpose of the code is to provide an international standard for the safe carriage by sea in bulk of dangerous and noxious liquid chemicals.  The Code prescribes the design and construction standards of ships involved in such carriage and the equipment they should carry so as to minimise the risk to the ship, to its crew and to the environment, having regard to the nature of the products involved.

Applies to all chemical tankers constructed on or after 1^st July 1986 and includes the ‘Index of Dangerous Chemicals Carried in Bulk’.

The Code applies to ships regardless of size, including those of less than 500 tons gross tonnage, engaged in the carriage of bulk cargoes of dangerous or noxious liquid chemical substances, other than petroleum or similar flammable products as follows:

1/       Products having significant fire hazards in excess of those of petroleum products and similar flammable products.

2/       Products having significant hazards in addition to or other than flammability.

Such products are listed in Chapter 17 of the Code, which gives the ‘Summary of Minimum Requirements’ for carriage.

The IBC Code classification of a product is according to whether it presents safety, pollution or safety and pollution hazards is given in column (d) in Chapter 17 of the IBC Code as follows:

S       product is included in the Code because of its safety hazards
P       product is included in the Code because of its pollution hazards
S/P    product is included in the Code because of both its safety and pollution hazards

Products that have been reviewed and determined not to present safety and pollution hazards to such an extent as to warrant the application of the Code are found in Chapter 18. The ‘List of Chemicals to which the Code does not apply’.