Container glossary
What is a CSC plate?
A CSC plate is the metal safety approval plate fixed to the door of a shipping container, showing what the container is rated for and whether its inspection is current. It is required by the International Convention for Safe Containers of 1972, and a container without a valid one is not accepted for carriage by sea.
What the convention makes an owner do
The convention has two halves. The first is approval: a container design is tested and approved by a government or a body acting for it, and every unit built to that design carries a plate saying so. The second is upkeep: the owner must keep the container safe and have it examined. A new container gets its first examination within five years of manufacture and further ones at intervals of no more than thirty months.
Owners with large fleets usually work under an Approved Continuous Examination Programme instead, in which each container is checked whenever it passes through a depot. Such a box shows an ACEP reference in place of a date. Either way the plate, or a decal beside it, tells the reader which scheme applies.
Reading the plate on the left-hand door
It is riveted low on the left door, normally as one panel of a larger data plate, and headed “CSC SAFETY APPROVAL”. Below the heading come the approval reference, the date of manufacture, the manufacturer’s identification number, the maximum operating gross mass, the allowable stacking load and the racking test force. The combined plate also gives the tare, and somewhere on it is the next examination date or the ACEP number.
For weights, this plate is the authority over every published table: if a figure on this site differs from the plate on your unit, the plate is right. What each grade of used container implies about its plate is set out in the container grades guide, and max gross explains the main figure.
Taking the presence of a plate for a valid approval
Nearly every container ever built still has its plate. Sellers therefore say “with CSC plate” of boxes whose examination date passed years ago. A buyer who intends to ship in the container finds out at booking: the line will not take it until a surveyor has inspected it and renewed the date, and any repairs the surveyor asks for come first. If shipping is the plan, ask for a photograph of the plate and read the date, or buy cargo-worthy with a current survey.
For storage on land none of this matters; an expired date does not make a box leak. The reverse case does matter: cutting openings for doors or windows changes the structure the approval was given for, so a modified container should not be assumed fit for a ship. The buying guide lists the plate among its six checks.
Frequently asked questions
What does CSC stand for?
The International Convention for Safe Containers, adopted in 1972. It sets the testing, approval and examination rules for containers used in international transport.
Where is the CSC plate on a container?
On the left-hand door, riveted in the lower half, usually as part of a combined data plate. It is a rectangular metal plate headed “CSC SAFETY APPROVAL”.
Do I need a valid CSC plate for a storage container?
No — a container used only for storage on land does not need a current examination. A valid plate is needed when the box is to be shipped, because lines and terminals will not load a container without one.