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What is new in IMDG Code amendment 43-26

Published on · DGAssistant

DGAssistant supports amendment 43-26 from 1 January 2027

From the first day on which amendment 43-26 of the IMDG Code may be applied, DGAssistant supports it in the IMDG Multimodal Dangerous Goods Form, the checklist and the package marking.

Amendment 43-26 of the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code was adopted by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee on 21 May 2026 through resolution MSC.587(111). It may be applied on a voluntary basis from 1 January 2027 and becomes mandatory on 1 January 2028; DGAssistant supports it from 1 January 2027. Besides incorporating the latest revision of the UN Model Regulations, the amendment introduces a safety assessment for vehicles shipped by sea, reorganises the entries for batteries installed in cargo transport units and replaces the segregation distances for radioactive material.

Key dates

Date What it means
1 January 2027 Amendment 43-26 may be applied, in whole or in part, on a voluntary basis
1 July 2027 The amendment is deemed accepted unless enough Contracting Governments object
1 January 2028 Amendment 43-26 enters into force and becomes mandatory
31 December 2028 Last day on which portable tank instruction T1 may still be applied (TP43)
31 December 2034 End of the relief from performance tests for certain plastics drums of UN 3082 (PP99)

Throughout 2027 amendment 42-24 remains in force, so it is advisable to confirm with the carrier which amendment will be applied to each consignment.

Vehicles: a safety assessment before shipping

New special provision 980 applies to UN 3166, UN 3171, UN 3556, UN 3557 and UN 3558. Before offering a vehicle for transport, the consignor must assess its condition. The vehicle may not be shipped if it shows leaks from the battery, engine, fuel cell, gas cylinder, fuel system or braking system, damage to its electrical equipment or to its airbags and seat belt tensioners, or the effects of an extreme event such as a flood, a fire or submersion, unless corrective action has been taken and its effectiveness checked. Batteries subject to special provision 376 must be removed. The provision does not apply to vehicles driven on board by passengers of ro-ro passenger ships.

Special provisions 961 and 962 are rewritten:

  • Special provision 961 exempts a vehicle from the code, except for P912 and special provisions 388 and 977, when one of its conditions is met: it is stowed in a vehicle, special category or ro-ro space without signs of leakage; it runs on a liquid fuel with a flashpoint of 38 °C or above, with no more than 450 L in the tanks; its tanks are empty when the fuel has a lower flashpoint or is a gas, with a residual pressure of no more than 2 bar; or it is powered only by a battery that is insulated against short circuit or, in the case of sodium ion batteries, short-circuited so that it holds no energy.
  • Special provision 962 places the remaining vehicles in Class 9: tanks no more than one quarter full and no more than 250 L of liquid fuel unless the competent authority approves otherwise, gas valves closed and batteries protected. Unpackaged vehicles need no marks or labels, but the cargo transport unit that carries them must display placards.

Batteries

  • UN 3536 now covers only lithium ion batteries installed in a cargo transport unit; lithium metal batteries move to the new UN 3563 and sodium ion batteries to the new UN 3564. All three entries require systems that prevent overcharge and over-discharge (special provision 389).
  • Hybrid batteries with lithium ion and sodium ion cells are tested as lithium ion batteries and assigned to UN 3480, UN 3481 or UN 3536 (2.9.4.8 and special provision 410). Under special provision 188 they are limited to 100 Wh, marked on the case.
  • The lithium or sodium ion battery mark becomes the battery mark. Button cells installed in equipment do not count towards the limits of special provision 188, and their UN number does not have to appear on the mark. When the mark and labels other than model No. 9A are required, the mark goes on the same surface as the labels if the package is large enough.
  • Used medical devices that contain or are packed with lithium or sodium ion batteries are shipped under the battery entries.
  • A battery that has been repaired, refurbished or remanufactured may be considered different from the tested type (2.9.4.1).

New and amended entries

  • UN 3561 CHLOROPHENOLS, CORROSIVE, TOXIC, SOLID, N.O.S. and UN 3562 CHLOROPHENOLS, CORROSIVE, SOLID, N.O.S. are added. UN 2020 and UN 2021 become CHLOROPHENOLS, TOXIC, SOLID, N.O.S. and CHLOROPHENOLS, TOXIC, LIQUID, N.O.S., and require the technical name.
  • UN 2941 FLUOROANILINES is deleted; 2,4-difluoroaniline is now listed under UN 2810.
  • Subsidiary hazards: Class 8 for UN 1040, UN 1041 and UN 3300, Class 6.1 for UN 1727, and Classes 6.1 and 8 for UN 2372, which also moves to portable tank instruction T7.
  • New packing group II entries for UN 2348 butyl acrylates, stabilized (flashpoint from 14 °C to below 23 °C) and UN 2862 vanadium pentoxide containing at least 10 % respirable particles.
  • UN 2857 and UN 3358 also cover heating machines, such as heat pumps.
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners containing a non-flammable, non-toxic gas are shipped as UN 3538 (special provision 411) and are not subject to the code when they contain less than 12 kg of gas of Class 2.2.
  • UN 1075 and UN 1965 may contain up to 12 % dimethyl ether (special provision 412), and liquid organic hydrogen carriers under UN 3082 may contain no more than 0.5 L of dissolved hydrogen per kg (special provision 413).
  • UN 2203 silane moves from stowage category E to D, and several entries change from portable tank provision TP1 to TP2.

Classification and packing

  • A new procedure allows samples of certain energetic organic substances to be shipped as self-reactive substances type C, up to 200 g per outer packaging, depending on their decomposition energy (2.0.4.3.2).
  • Category A of infectious substances explicitly includes new or emerging pathogens that meet its criteria, and any doubtful case is assigned to category A.
  • Aerosols receive a subsidiary hazard of Class 6.1 or Class 8 when their contents are of packing group II or III, and are forbidden when the contents are of packing group I or meet the criteria of certain other classes (special provision 63).
  • Plastics drums with removable heads of more than 5 L and up to 20 L containing certain UN 3082 mixtures are exempt from the performance tests until 31 December 2034, provided that they pass the stacking test (PP99).
  • For organic peroxides and self-reactive substances, metal packagings that meet the packing group I hydraulic pressure test criteria may not be used, to avoid the unnecessary confinement of liquids.
  • Cylinders, tubes and bundles of cylinders are limited by a pressure-volume product of 1.5 million bar·L, and salvage pressure receptacles are defined by their usable water capacity.

Stowage, segregation and documents

  • The table of segregation distances between radioactive material and passengers and crew is replaced. On container ships, general cargo ships and ro-ro ships of at least 150 m, the minimum distance ranges from 6 m, for a sum of transport indexes up to 10, to 36 m, for a sum between 200 and 400.
  • Packages that have passed a stacking test must be loaded in the same orientation as tested (7.3.3.7), and cargo transport units under temperature control are monitored with two independently powered measuring devices (7.3.7.4.3).
  • Column 17 of the Dangerous Goods List gains guidance on the properties to record for each class, such as flashpoint, density in relation to air or corrosivity, and the examples of dangerous goods descriptions in 5.4.1.4.4 are updated.

What to review before applying amendment 43-26

  • Vehicle shipments: the assessment of special provision 980 and the conditions of special provisions 961 and 962.
  • Products with UN 2020, UN 2021, UN 2941, UN 1040, UN 1041, UN 1727, UN 2372 or UN 3300, whose name or subsidiary hazards change.
  • Batteries installed in cargo transport units, hybrid batteries and the battery mark.
  • Stowage plans that include radioactive material.

What changes in DGAssistant

From 1 January 2027 DGAssistant supports amendment 43-26: the Dangerous Goods List, the special provisions, the packing instructions and the stowage and segregation rules follow the amendment. If you keep predefined products, check those whose entries change, in particular chlorophenols and the gases with a new subsidiary hazard. The IMDG-IMO Declaration Form page shows how DGAssistant prepares these documents.

Sources: IMO resolution MSC.587(111), amendments to the IMDG Code (amendment 43-26), adopted on 21 May 2026.

Tags: IMDG · Amendment 43-26 · Sea transport · Vehicles

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