Container Sweat and Wet Cargo: How to Record Moisture Damage

You open the doors and the first thing you notice is a smell of damp. Drops hang from the ceiling, the top cartons are dark at the edges and the board has gone soft. Nobody can say at once whether the goods were loaded wet, whether the roof leaks or whether the box simply "sweated" on the way. The cause matters later. What matters in the first hour is to record exactly where the moisture is and how much cargo it has touched.

Where the water comes from

Moisture in a sealed container usually has one of three origins.

• Condensation. Warm, humid air trapped inside the box meets cold surfaces when the temperature drops, and water forms on the ceiling and walls and then drips onto the cargo. It is common on long journeys across different climates.
• Wet cargo or packing. Cartons, pallets or timber that were damp when loaded give off that moisture inside the closed box.
• A leak. Water gets in through a hole, a failed seam or a damaged door gasket.

These can occur together, and it is rarely possible to tell them apart with certainty at the doors. You can, however, collect the signs that point one way or the other.

Reading the pattern

Condensation tends to wet the top layers and the area under the ceiling, often over a wide area, while the bottom of the load stays dry. A leak is usually local: wet cargo under one spot, with rust streaks or a visible gap in the roof or wall, sometimes daylight coming through. Wet pallets under dry cartons, or damp at floor level only, suggest moisture from below or from the packing itself. Photograph these relationships, because a cause is read from the pattern and not from a single wet carton.

What to check and record

1. The ceiling, walls and floor of the container, with close-ups of any drips, rust or stains.
2. The top layer of every stack, and the pallets at the back and along the sides.
3. Signs on the cartons: soft or warped board, dark edges, peeling labels, white crystals, a mouldy smell.
4. Signs on the goods: rust on metal parts, spots on fabric or paper, swollen wood-based items.
5. A map: draw a simple plan of the container and mark where the wet and the dry cartons are.

Do not dry or move anything until it has been photographed. Then open a few cartons from the wet area and a few from a dry area, and compare the contents. Moisture on the outside does not always mean damage inside, and a dry outside does not always mean a dry inside.

Measure whatever can be measured: the number of wet cartons, the number of pallets affected, and how high the damp reaches from the floor or how far it extends from the ceiling. Figures are stronger than description.

A conditional example

A container holds 20 pallets, each with a top layer of 8 cartons. Along the rear wall, six pallets have wet top layers: 6 × 8 = 48 cartons. You open 6 of them and find rust spots on the contents of 2. Your record says: 48 cartons visibly wet, 6 opened, 2 with rust on the contents, 14 pallets dry on the outside, with photographs and a plan. A supplier, a carrier or an insurer can actually act on that. "Some of the cargo was wet" gives them nothing to act on.

Who is responsible

A receiving check will not decide this. Responsibility depends on how the goods were packed and loaded, on the delivery terms, on the carrier's conditions and on any insurance, and these are matters to take up with your supplier, your forwarder or a lawyer. What you can do is give them clear facts, and quickly. To reduce the risk on the next order, ask the supplier about desiccant bags, moisture-resistant wrapping, dry pallets and photographs taken at loading.

In short

Moisture damage is easier to prove on the first day than on the tenth, because the cartons dry out, the mould spreads and memories fade. CargoChek checks the condition of the packing on arrival, photographs the wet areas together with their position, and gives you a plan and a count of what was affected.