The current edition of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code) is edition 2024, incorporating amendments 42-24 which were adopted on 24 May 2024 through IMO Resolution MSC.556(108) at MSC 108 and which comes into force on 1 January 2026.
Ireland is promoting early adoption of the amendments from 1 January 2025. These amendments replace the complete text of the IMDG Code. A new edition of the IMDG Code has been published by the IMO in hard copy, as a download and as an Internet subscription.
Although the information in the code is directed primarily at the mariner, its provisions are essential for a whole range of industries and services.
Manufacturers, packers, shippers, feeder services such as road and rail, and port authorities will find reliable advice on terminology, packing, labelling, classification, stowage, segregation and emergency response action.
Meanwhile, the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes Code (IMSBC Code) applies to all ships to which the SOLAS Convention, as amended, applies and that are carrying solid bulk cargoes as defined in Regulation 1-1 of Part A of Chapter VI (Carriage of cargoes and oil fuels) of the Convention. It also applies to Part A-1 of Chapter VII of the Convention. The IMSBC Code became mandatory from 1 January 2011.
Further amendments to the IMSBC Code were made in 2023 (MSC.539(107)) which come into effect from 1 January 2025. As part of these amendments, the “Form for Cargo Information for Solid Bulk Cargoes” to be completed by shippers of bulk cargoes was amended to include the bulk density of the cargo as required by SOLAS regulation XIII/10.
For further details, see Marine Notice No 64 of 2024 attached below.
