Cargo Securing and Lashing Equipment: What the Type-Approval Register Shows

Cargo securing and lashing hardware sits at the intersection of stevedoring, deck operations and classification requirements: lashing rods, turnbuckles and similar tensioning devices, chain, shackles, swivels and sockets, lifting gear, hooks, structural connecting elements and the loose gear that ties containers, project cargo and heavy units to a moving hull. Approvals for this equipment are issued under DNV's type-approval scheme, and the resulting certificates are the paperwork a superintendent, a chief officer or a yard buyer checks before gear goes on board or into a container terminal.

This piece works from two of our own data sets. The first is our type-approval register, filtered to the DNV product types that cover cargo securing, chain and shackle hardware, lifting gear, hooks, structural connecting elements and loose-gear blocks. The second is our supplier directory, filtered to firms whose profile text mentions lashing, cargo securing or container operations. Neither data set is the whole market. The register only holds what has been type-approved and logged in our system, and the directory only holds firms whose own profile wording happened to match those search terms.

The intended reader is technical, procurement, newbuilding and service staff who need a starting point before writing a specification, chasing down a manufacturer, or checking whether a certificate is still current.

What our register covers for cargo securing and lashing equipment

In our type-approval register, 1190 products across the cargo-securing and lashing-related DNV product types carry an approval, held by 103 manufacturers. All of them fall under a single certificate group, Type Approval, with no separate module layered on top of it in this data set. That single-group structure matters for a buyer: the certificate a supplier shows for one of these products is a complete Type Approval on its own, not one part of a larger package that needs a second document to be meaningful.

Product types in the register

Our register splits this equipment into six DNV product types, each with its own count of approved products and the manufacturers behind them:

• Cargo Securing Devices: 942 approved products from 39 manufacturers. This is by far the largest bucket, and it is where turnbuckles, lashing rods and comparable deck-tensioning hardware sit.
• Chain, shackles, swivels, sockets: 117 products from 25 manufacturers, covering chain and its connecting fittings for lashing and rigging duty.
• Lifting Gear: 82 products from 37 manufacturers, the widest manufacturer base relative to product count among the six groups.
• Hook: 22 products from 11 manufacturers.
• Structural Connecting Elements: 14 products from 5 manufacturers.
• Loose Gear - Block: 13 products from 3 manufacturers, the smallest and most concentrated group in the data set.

Cargo Securing Devices alone accounts for well over three-quarters of all 1190 approved products in this data set, while Lifting Gear stands out for having almost as many manufacturers, 37, as Cargo Securing Devices' 39, despite carrying far fewer products. That pattern suggests lifting-gear approvals in our register are held in smaller batches per manufacturer rather than concentrated in a handful of broad catalogues.

Who holds the approvals

Approvals in this register are not evenly spread. The leading manufacturer, MacGregor Finland Oy, based in Finland, holds 164 approved products in our register, roughly one in seven of the whole 1190-product set. Beyond that single leader, though, the field opens up into a broad group of manufacturers each holding a double-digit share:

• MacGregor Finland Oy (Finland): 164 products
• General Lashing System (China) Co., Ltd. (China): 98 products
• SEC Ship's Equipment Centre Bremen GmbH & Co. KG (Germany): 95 products
• Sclashing Shanghai Co., Ltd. (China): 92 products
• International Lashing Systems NV (Belgium): 87 products
• CSSC LUCKY SEA(KUNSHAN) HIGH-TECH CO.,LTD. (China): 56 products
• Kunshan Luckysea Industrial Co., Ltd. (China): 51 products
• Ropeblock B.V. (Netherlands): 45 products
• Container Technics NV (Belgium): 37 products
• MEC Container Safety Systems GmbH (Germany): 33 products
• PortStar SC Container Lashing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (China): 23 products

By country, manufacturers holding these approvals in our register are based in China (20 manufacturers), Germany (18), the Netherlands (10), Norway (7), Spain and the United Kingdom (6 each), the United States, Denmark and Belgium (4 each), and the Republic of Korea (3). China and Germany together account for well over a third of the 103 manufacturers in this data set, but the presence of Finnish, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Spanish, British, American, Danish and Korean manufacturers among the top holders and the country list shows this is not a market cornered by any single national industry in our register.

Validity and expiry

Of the 1190 products in this data set, 1149 carry a certificate currently listed as valid and 43 as expired. An expired listing does not necessarily mean the product has left the market, but it does mean a certificate obtained today for that entry would need to be reissued or renewed before it could be presented as current.

Looking only at the certificates still on a forward track, our register shows 158 due to expire in 2026, 146 in 2027, 202 in 2028, 313 in 2029, 285 in 2030, 87 in 2031, and a single one in 2034. The 2029 figure is the largest single-year cluster by a wide margin, which points to a wave of renewal activity to expect around that date across a meaningful slice of this equipment category.

For a buyer or superintendent, the operational takeaway is straightforward: never treat a certificate's presence in a register or in a supplier's own literature as proof of current validity. Request a current copy of the Type Approval certificate from the manufacturer, and check its expiry date against the delivery date or the vessel's next dry-docking window, not against the date the equipment was ordered.

Where to find service and supply

Our supplier directory holds 786 firms whose profile text mentions lashing, cargo securing or container operations. That basis is worth reading carefully: this is not a curated list of lashing-equipment manufacturers, it is every directory entry whose free-text profile happens to reference those terms. In practice that pulls in shipowners running geared bulk carriers with their own cranes, ship managers, and repair yards handling container and general-cargo work, alongside any dedicated lashing suppliers that also appear.

By country, Germany leads this directory slice with 95 entries, followed by China (72), the United States (50), the Netherlands (38), the United Kingdom (31), Turkey (29), Japan (23) and India (21). A sample of what these entries actually look like:

• Transworld Group - Transworld Shipping Lines Ltd., a shipping company whose profile references geared bulk carriers with their own cranes: directory entry.
• Wilhelmsen Ahrenkiel Ship Management (Netherlands), a shipping company whose profile references geared bulker tonnage and deck cranes: directory entry.
• Ernst Russ GmbH & Co KG (Germany), a shipping company profiled around geared bulk carriers with their own cranes: directory entry.
• Tersan Shipyard - Tuzla Repair Branch (Turkey), a repair yard whose profile covers bulk carriers, general cargo and container work including hold cleaning: directory entry.
• NSB GROUP (Reederei NSB Niederelbe) (Germany), a technical ship manager whose fleet profile spans container, tanker and bulk tonnage: directory entry.

None of these five entries are dedicated lashing-hardware manufacturers; they illustrate the operator and yard side of this 786-firm data set rather than the supply side. A buyer looking specifically for a lashing-equipment vendor should cross-check any directory find against the manufacturer names in the register above rather than relying on the directory search terms alone.

How to use this when specifying or buying

• Confirm the exact DNV product type the item falls under - Cargo Securing Devices, Chain/shackles/swivels/sockets, Lifting Gear, Hook, Structural Connecting Elements, or Loose Gear - Block - before comparing suppliers, since the six groups in our register are not interchangeable on a specification.
• Ask the manufacturer for a current Type Approval certificate copy rather than relying on a catalogue reference or an older document on file, and check the product against our register's status field.
• Check the certificate's expiry date against your delivery date or the vessel's next dry-docking window, not against today's date.
• When comparing manufacturers, note that a large product count in our register, such as MacGregor Finland Oy's 164 approved products or Ropeblock B.V.'s 45, reflects catalogue breadth in this data set, not automatic fitness for a specific application.
• Cross-check a supplier found through the directory against the register's manufacturer list; directory presence, especially for the operator- and yard-heavy entries described above, is not evidence of a type approval.
• Keep the DNV product types distinct when you specify chain, shackle and swivel hardware: a shackle approved under Chain, shackles, swivels, sockets is not automatically approved as Lifting Gear or as a Hook.
• Treat a manufacturer's own type designation, such as "SWIVEL JAW" from Jiangsu Asian Star Anchor Chain Co., Ltd. or "Chafe Chain" from Qingdao Anchor Chain Co., Ltd., as a way to confirm you are looking at the right product family, not as a substitute for checking the certificate itself.

Frequently asked questions

How many manufacturers hold cargo-securing and lashing approvals in the register?

In our type-approval register, 103 manufacturers hold approvals across the cargo-securing and lashing-related product types, with 1190 approved products between them.

Which product type has the most approvals?

Cargo Securing Devices, with 942 approved products from 39 manufacturers in our register, well over three-quarters of all 1190 products in this data set.

Are all these certificates still valid?

No. Of the 1190 products in our register, 1149 carry a certificate listed as valid and 43 as expired. Always request a current certificate copy rather than relying on the register status alone, and check the expiry year against your own schedule.

Can the supplier directory be used to find a lashing-equipment manufacturer directly?

Not reliably on its own. The 786 firms in our directory matching lashing, cargo securing or container terms include shipowners, ship managers and repair yards alongside equipment suppliers. Cross-check any directory find against the manufacturer names in the type-approval register above before treating it as a lashing-equipment vendor.