By ShipCalculators.com · Published 29 April 2026 · last updated 28 May 2026

Alumina: IMSBC Code Schedule and Carriage

Contents

Alumina is aluminum oxide, the white powder that sits between bauxite ore and aluminum metal. Refineries produce it from bauxite through the Bayer process, then ship it to smelters where it is reduced to aluminum in electrolytic cells. Under the IMSBC Code, the named cargo ALUMINA is a Group C solid bulk cargo: neither liable to liquefy nor a chemical hazard, with a bulk density of 781 to 1,087 kg/m3 and a stowage factor of 0.92 to 1.28 m3/t. The one carriage concern that matters at sea is the dust. The schedule records it plainly: “Alumina dust is very abrasive and penetrating. Irritating to eyes and mucous membranes.” That single sentence shapes hold preparation, personnel protection, and machinery protection on every alumina fixture. You can read off the same group, density, and stowage data for any of the alumina variants in the IMSBC bulk cargo finder.

This article covers the named ALUMINA schedule and the related entries (calcined, hydrate, silica, brown fused), what calcined smelter-grade alumina is, the schedule fields and where they come from in the IMSBC Code, hold preparation for a fine abrasive powder, loading and trimming, the dust and personnel hazards, stowage and stability with a dense low-volume cargo, discharge, and where alumina sits in the bauxite-to-alumina-to-aluminum chain. The data here matches the in-force schedule as amended by Resolution MSC.539(107), the 07-23 amendment set.

What alumina is

Alumina is aluminum oxide, Al2O3, a white crystalline powder with little or no odor and little or no free moisture. The grade that fills most bulk carriers is calcined smelter-grade alumina (SGA), a feedstock for primary aluminum production rather than a finished product in its own right. The cargo is insoluble in organic liquids and chemically inert under normal carriage conditions. It does not burn, does not react with the steel of a clean dry hold, and does not emit gas during the voyage. Almost everything that makes alumina demanding to carry comes down to particle size and abrasion, not chemistry.

Calcined smelter-grade alumina

Smelter-grade alumina is produced by calcining aluminum hydroxide at roughly 1,000 to 1,200 degrees Celsius to drive off the chemically bound water and convert the hydroxide to oxide. The result is a free-flowing white powder with a particle size distribution centered in the tens to low hundreds of micrometres, plus a fine tail of particles small enough to become airborne. That fine fraction is the source of the dust problem. SGA can also reach the loading berth warm: cargo handbook guidance notes loading temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees Celsius are possible when the alumina has not fully cooled after calcination, which raises the dust nuisance and the case for personal protection at the shiploader.

Around 70 percent of world alumina production goes to primary aluminum smelters, with the remainder going to nonmetallurgical products such as abrasives, ceramics, chemicals, and refractories, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries for 2026. Smelter-grade material is therefore the dominant bulk-carrier cargo by tonnage, and it is the grade the carriage discussion below assumes unless a variant is named.

The Bayer process and why the powder is dusty

The Bayer process is the route from bauxite to alumina, and its last step explains the dust. Bauxite is digested in hot caustic soda, which dissolves the aluminum content as sodium aluminate while most of the other minerals stay solid and are removed as red mud. The clarified liquor is then cooled and seeded so aluminum hydroxide precipitates out, and that hydroxide is calcined at 1,000 to 1,200 degrees Celsius to drive off the water and convert it to alumina. The precipitation and calcination steps control the particle size, and smelter-grade producers deliberately target a coarse, low-dust product to suit the smelter feed system. Even so, attrition during calcination, conveying, and ship loading generates fines, and it is that fraction below roughly 20 micrometres that becomes airborne and gives the schedule its abrasive-dust hazard. The dust is not a contaminant; it is the cargo itself, ground finer by handling.

This matters for carriage because the dust load is partly a function of how gently the alumina has been handled before it reaches the ship. Material that has been transferred through several conveyor drops, or that arrives warm and dry, carries more airborne fines than freshly cooled, well-handled product. The ship cannot change the dust characteristic of the alumina it loads, so the precautions in the schedule treat the worst case: a fine, dry, warm, penetrating powder.

Chemical-grade and specialty aluminas

Outside the smelter feed stream sits a family of higher-value aluminas: reactive aluminas, fused aluminas, tabular aluminas, and aluminum hydroxide intermediates used in refractories, abrasives, ceramics, polishing compounds, catalyst supports, and water treatment. These move in smaller parcels, often in containers or bags rather than open bulk, and several have their own IMSBC schedule entries with different physical data. BROWN FUSED ALUMINA, for instance, is a dense abrasive product carried as a Group C cargo with a bulk density of 1,650 to 2,000 kg/m3 and a stowage factor of 0.50 to 0.61 m3/t, far heavier and tighter-stowing than the smelter-grade powder.

The IMSBC schedule fields

The IMSBC Code is the IMO’s mandatory framework for solid bulk cargoes, adopted by Resolution MSC.268(85) on 4 December 2008 and made compulsory under SOLAS Chapter VI from 1 January 2011. It assigns every named cargo to a group, then gives an individual schedule in Appendix 1 with the physical and hazard data a master needs to load and carry the material. The schedule for ALUMINA is short because the cargo is benign in almost every respect except dust. Each field below is taken from the in-force schedule as amended by MSC.539(107).

Group, class, and UN number

ALUMINA is Group C: not liable to liquefy and not a chemical hazard. It carries no IMDG class and no UN number, so it is not dangerous goods and is not a Material Hazardous only in Bulk (MHB). That places it in the largest of the three IMSBC families. Of the 350 cargoes in the working dataset behind the IMSBC bulk cargo finder, 173 are Group C, and alumina is a textbook member: inert, dry, and free-flowing. The wider treatment of this family lives in the IMSBC Group C cargoes article, and the three-group system itself is set out in the IMSBC Code overview.

A Group C classification does not remove the documentary obligations. Section 4.2 of the Code still requires the shipper to declare the cargo, its group, and its relevant physical properties before loading. What Group C removes is the moisture-limit testing of Group A and the chemical-hazard monitoring of Group B. There is no transportable moisture limit to certify and no hold-atmosphere gas regime to run.

Bulk density and stowage factor

The schedule gives a bulk density of 781 to 1,087 kg/m3 and a stowage factor of 0.92 to 1.28 m3/t. The two numbers are reciprocals of each other and describe the same physical fact from opposite directions: density is mass per unit volume, stowage factor is volume per unit mass. The range reflects real variation between alumina grades and between loose and settled states. As-loaded smelter-grade alumina sits near the middle of that band, around 1,000 kg/m3.

The practical consequence is that alumina is a dense, low-volume cargo. A handysize or supramax bulk carrier loading alumina will reach its deadweight before it fills the cubic capacity of the holds. The cargo occupies roughly one cubic metre per tonne, so a 50,000-tonne parcel needs on the order of 50,000 m3 of hold volume, well inside the grain capacity of the ships that carry it. That under-filled condition drives the stowage and stability discussion in a later section.

Angle of repose and size

The angle of repose is recorded as “Not applicable” in the schedule. The angle of repose is the steepest slope a granular pile holds without sliding, and the Code uses it to flag cargoes whose surface can shift and reduce stability. For a fine free-flowing powder like alumina it is not a meaningful or required parameter, so the schedule omits it rather than quoting a figure. The IMSBC bulk cargo finder returns the same “Not applicable” for alumina, which is correct and not a data gap.

The size field describes alumina as a fine powder. That description, not the angle of repose, is the one that governs handling, because fineness is what makes the cargo flowable, self-trimming, and dusty all at once.

Hazard

The hazard field is the heart of the alumina schedule: “Alumina dust is very abrasive and penetrating. Irritating to eyes and mucous membranes.” There is no fire risk to speak of, no toxic gas, and no liquefaction. The hazard is mechanical and respiratory. Abrasive dust wears at moving parts, packs into bearings and seals, and works its way into accommodation and machinery spaces through any gap. Penetrating dust does not settle politely; it migrates. Irritation to eyes and mucous membranes is the direct effect on personnel exposed without protection.

That hazard statement is why the schedule, despite being a Group C entry, still carries weather precautions, bilge protection, and personnel-protection wording that an inert cargo would not need.

Hold preparation for a fine abrasive powder

Cargo holds for alumina must be clean, dry, and tight. Alumina is shipped to smelters that feed it directly into the reduction line, so contamination from a previous cargo, rust scale, or residual moisture is a quality problem as well as a stowage one. Skuld P&I’s loss-prevention guidance frames hold preparation as a critical element of bulk carrier operations that requires careful planning and competent execution, and that holds for alumina as much as for any sensitive cargo. The general standards behind this are set out in the cargo hold preparation standards article.

Cleanliness grade

Alumina is normally carried to a high cleanliness standard. The trade recognizes a ladder of grades, and Skuld P&I documents five: at the top sits “stringent clean,” also called “hospital clean,” which requires 100 percent intact paint coatings on all surfaces including the tank top, ladder rungs, and undersides of hatches. Below it is “grain clean,” the most common requirement, defined by the trade as holds that are clean, swept, washed down with fresh water, free from insects, odor, residue of previous cargo, lashing material, loose rust scale, and paint flakes, then dried and ventilated. For a contamination-sensitive feedstock loaded into smelter silos, charterers commonly specify grain clean as the minimum, and shippers’ surveyors inspect the holds against it before loading begins.

The cleanliness specification belongs in the fixture, not in a phone call at the load port. Skuld records a case in which a vessel arrived at the load port unable to complete planned cleaning during the sea passage, lacked sufficient cleaning stores on board, and could not source materials locally, which led to a defence dispute between owners and charterers over who carried the delay and the cost. Advance planning of cleaning materials and timing prevents that argument.

Bilge wells and steelwork

The most cargo-specific preparation for alumina is sealing the bilge wells. Fine powder will sift through any opening into the bilge system and pack the strainers, so the wells are protected before loading. The accepted method is to cover the bilge strainer plates with clean burlap or hessian, often two layers, secured with cement wash or tape so that the wrapped plates sit flush with the tank top and cannot be dislodged by a bulldozer during trimming or discharge. The IMSBC schedule states the principle directly: bilge wells are to be clean, dry, and protected from ingress of the cargo.

Dry alumina is benign to the steel of the hold. The corrosion concern is the reverse case: alumina that has taken up moisture, or a hold that was loaded damp, can hold water against poorly drained tank-top steelwork and promote corrosion over a long voyage. Keeping the cargo and the hold dry is therefore both a quality measure and a structural one.

Hatch covers and weathertightness

Because alumina must be kept dry, hatch cover weathertightness is checked before loading rather than assumed. The standard non-destructive checks are the chalk test on the compression bars and the hose test or ultrasonic test on the seals and cross-joints. A leak that would be a minor nuisance with a coarse ore is a direct cargo-damage and dust-escape path with a fine powder. The same weathertightness discipline that protects the cargo from rain ingress also keeps abrasive dust inside the hold rather than letting it blow across the deck and into vents.

Loading and trimming

Alumina loads through enclosed shiploaders fitted with dust filtration to hold emissions down at the loading point. The cargo is highly flowable and fills the hold uniformly, so it largely self-trims as it pours from the loader spout. The IMSBC schedule requires only that the cargo be trimmed in accordance with the general trimming provisions of sections 4 and 5 of the Code; there is no special trimming requirement beyond reasonably levelling the surface so the hatch can close securely and the load is distributed across the tank top.

Weather precautions during loading

The schedule’s weather precaution is short and absolute: “This cargo shall be kept as dry as practicable. This cargo shall not be handled during precipitation.” Loading stops in rain, and hatch covers come across promptly between pours and at the end of loading. This is the operational expression of the dry-cargo requirement, and it is why alumina terminals favor covered conveyor galleries and enclosed loaders. Wet alumina is heavier, stickier, harder to discharge cleanly, and more corrosive to the hold, so the half-hour spent waiting out a squall is cheaper than the consequences of loading through it.

Distribution and the dense-cargo limit

Because alumina stows at roughly 1 m3/t, a full deadweight parcel sits low in the holds and leaves a large empty volume above. The loading plan distributes the tonnage so the ship reaches its marks without overstressing the structure. The relevant constraint for a high-density cargo is not the grain capacity but the tank-top strength and the hull-girder bending and shear limits as the load is spread between holds. Loading software and the ship’s approved loading manual govern the pour sequence; the bulk carrier article covers the structural design that sets those limits.

Dust and personnel hazards

The dust is the working hazard of alumina, and it acts on three fronts: people, machinery, and the cargo’s own escape from the hold. The schedule’s instruction is specific. Persons who may be exposed to the dust are to wear protective clothing, goggles or other equivalent dust eye-protection, and dust filter masks as necessary. With possible loading temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees Celsius, that protection matters at the shiploader and during any hold entry, not only at the dustiest discharge points.

Personnel exposure

Alumina dust irritates the eyes and the mucous membranes of the nose, throat, and airways. The fine fraction is respirable, so the protection regime centres on eye protection and filtered breathing for anyone working in the dust cloud. Crew involvement in alumina loading is usually limited because terminals run enclosed systems, but hold entry for inspection, sweeping, or maintenance still demands the schedule’s personal protective equipment. The discipline is the same one the trade applies to other dusty powders during loading, where dust clouds develop and goggles and dust masks are mandatory for anyone in the vicinity.

Machinery and accommodation protection

The schedule requires that appropriate precautions be taken to protect machinery and accommodation spaces from the dust of the cargo. Abrasive dust that reaches a bearing, a seal, an air intake, or a ventilation fan accelerates wear and can foul filters. Before alumina loading, vents serving machinery and accommodation are checked and closed or filtered as appropriate, and deck machinery exposed to the loading point is covered where practical. This is the same penetrating-dust concern that keeps the hatch covers tight: the cargo that escapes the hold is the cargo that damages the ship.

Stowage and stability with a dense, low-volume cargo

Alumina’s density makes it a high-deadweight, low-cube cargo, and that drives the stability picture. A bulk carrier loaded with alumina to its marks carries a heavy weight low in the holds, which gives a large metacentric height (GM) and a stiff, fast-rolling ship. A stiff ship is not dangerous in the way a tender one is, but a short, sharp roll period puts higher accelerations on the cargo, the lashings of any deck items, and the crew. The loading plan therefore aims for a comfortable GM rather than the maximum the cargo allows, distributing weight to soften the roll where the stability margin permits.

There is no liquefaction or shifting concern with alumina the way there is with a Group A ore. The “Not applicable” angle of repose reflects that the powder does not form a slope that can avalanche and shift the center of gravity. Once trimmed reasonably level and the holds closed, an alumina cargo is stable for the voyage with no monitoring beyond routine. The contrast with bauxite, which has both a coarse Group C form and a fines form that can liquefy, is instructive: alumina is the refined, uniform powder downstream of bauxite, and it carries none of bauxite’s moisture-driven hazards.

Discharge

Alumina discharges either by grab-fitted shore cranes or by pneumatic and vacuum unloaders that draw the powder out through suction pipes into shore silos. Modern dedicated smelter terminals favor pneumatic systems because they cut dust emissions and deliver the alumina continuously into the smelter feed line rather than into an open hopper. Grab discharge is dustier and slower for a fine powder, and it leaves more residue in the hold corners that has to be swept by hand or bulldozer.

Matching the discharge gear to the ship

The discharge method has to match the ship, and a mismatch is a documented source of dispute, not a hypothetical one. Skuld records a case in which a charterer fixed a vessel without accounting for the differential in hold dimensions and hatch size, so the discharge needed both grabs and bulldozers and took longer than planned, yet the hold and hatch dimensions had been clearly stated in the fixture correspondence. The lesson sits in the fixture: the terminal’s discharge gear, the hold access, and the hatch openings all have to be reconciled before the cargo is booked, because a fine cargo that has to be bulldozed into a grab reach is slow and dusty to discharge.

Cleaning and water handling

After discharge the schedule sets one specific instruction on water handling: a portable pump shall be used as necessary to clear the cargo spaces of the wash water, rather than the fixed bilge pumps. Fine alumina residue in the wash water would otherwise pack and damage the fixed bilge system, so the portable pump keeps the abrasive slurry out of it. The general principle from the loss-prevention guidance applies too: remove as much cargo residue as possible at the discharge port, in accordance with MARPOL and local port regulations, which reduces disposal and clean-up cost before the next load port.

Cargo claims and quality risks

Alumina rarely produces a safety casualty, but it does produce cargo-quality and contractual claims, and those cluster around three things: contamination, moisture, and discharge delay. The cargo goes straight into a smelter feed system, so a receiver who finds rust scale, paint flakes, or residue from a previous cargo in the alumina has a contamination claim, and a hold that passed grain-clean inspection at the load port is the owner’s defence against it. The cleanliness grade in the fixture is therefore not paperwork; it is the standard the cargo will be measured against on delivery.

Moisture is the second claim driver. The schedule sets a moisture content of 0 to 5 percent and a hard rule that the cargo not be handled during precipitation. Alumina is hygroscopic, so it picks up a small amount of water from humid air over a long tropical voyage even when loaded dry, and a parcel loaded through a rain shower or into a wet hold can arrive heavier and with caked lumps that foul the receiver’s pneumatic handling. Keeping the holds dry and the hatch covers tight protects both the cargo condition and the ship against a moisture claim.

Discharge delay is the third, and the Skuld case noted earlier is the documented example: a charterer fixed a vessel whose hold and hatch dimensions forced a slower combined grab-and-bulldozer discharge, the discharge ran long, and a defence dispute followed even though the dimensions had been stated in the fixture. For a fine powder, the cost of getting the discharge gear wrong is measured in days of demurrage, not just in dust. Reconciling the terminal’s unloading method to the ship before the cargo is booked is the practical guard against that claim.

The bauxite-to-alumina-to-aluminum chain

Alumina is the middle link of a three-stage metals chain, and its seaborne trade exists because the three stages happen in different places. Bauxite is mined, refined to alumina near the mine or at a coastal refinery, and the alumina is then shipped to smelters sited where electricity is cheap. The USGS gives the material balance as a rule of thumb: roughly 4 tonnes of dried bauxite produce 2 tonnes of alumina, which in turn produce 1 tonne of aluminum. Each step roughly halves the mass, so shipping alumina rather than bauxite to a distant smelter moves half the tonnage for the same metal output.

Production and trade scale

World alumina production was about 142 million tonnes in 2024 and an estimated 150 million tonnes in 2025, according to the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries for 2026. China dominates, at about 85.5 million tonnes in 2024, followed by Australia at 17.1 million tonnes and Brazil at roughly 10.6 million tonnes. Not all of that crosses an ocean, since much Chinese alumina feeds domestic smelters, but the gap between where alumina is refined and where aluminum is smelted sustains a steady seaborne trade. United States alumina imports for consumption in 2025 came mainly from Brazil at 71 percent, with smaller shares from Jamaica, Australia, and Canada.

Where the schedules fit

The chain explains why several aluminum-related cargoes appear in the IMSBC Code with different group classifications. Bauxite, the raw ore, has a coarse Group C form and a fines form that liquefies; the bauxite schedule covers both. Alumina, the refined oxide, is the inert Group C powder described here. The contrast with cement is also worth drawing, because cement is the other major Group C white powder a bulk carrier loads: both are dusty, flowable, and pneumatically discharged, but cement hydrates and hardens on contact with moisture, while alumina is hygroscopic yet stays a free powder. Other related schedules in the same family include phosphate rock, potash, and petroleum coke.

The named cargo ALUMINA is the one most ships load, but the IMSBC Code lists several related entries with different data. Getting the bulk cargo shipping name right on the declaration matters, because the entries differ in group and hazard.

Alumina, calcined

ALUMINA, CALCINED appears as a separate Group C entry with a single bulk density of 1,639 kg/m3 and a stowage factor of 0.61 m3/t, and the hazard recorded as “No special hazards.” It is denser and tighter-stowing than the general ALUMINA entry. In practice the smelter-grade powder most cargoes carry is calcined alumina, and the choice between declaring it under ALUMINA or ALUMINA, CALCINED follows the shipper’s documentation and the specific grade; the abrasive-dust precautions of the general entry remain the prudent baseline either way.

Alumina hydrate

ALUMINA HYDRATE is the entry that breaks the Group C pattern, and it is the one to flag. It is classified Group A and B, carries the MHB hazard CR (corrosive), and is liable to liquefy if shipped above its transportable moisture limit, with a bulk density range of 500 to 1,500 kg/m3. A 2026 source claiming ALUMINA HYDRATE is a simple Group C powder would be wrong against the in-force schedule. Hydrate is an intermediate in the refining stream, the aluminum hydroxide that has not yet been calcined to oxide, and it is wetter and more reactive than the calcined product. A cargo declared as alumina hydrate triggers the moisture-content and TML certification of a Group A cargo, not the simple Group C handling of calcined alumina. Treating the two as interchangeable on the declaration is a real error to guard against.

Alumina silica and brown fused alumina

ALUMINA SILICA is a Group C cargo with a bulk density of 1,429 kg/m3, a stowage factor of 0.70 m3/t, and no special hazards; the pelletised form, ALUMINA SILICA, pellets, sits at 1,190 to 1,282 kg/m3. BROWN FUSED ALUMINA is the dense abrasive grade noted earlier, Group C at 1,650 to 2,000 kg/m3. None of these is liable to liquefy, and the older claim that alumina silica is a Group A liquefaction risk does not hold against the current schedule. Each can be checked against the in-force data in the IMSBC bulk cargo finder.

Stowage factor and bulk density

The one calculation an alumina stowage plan turns on is the conversion between bulk density and stowage factor, and then the volume a parcel needs against the hold capacity available. Both numbers describe the same cargo, and confusing them is a common loading error. They are reciprocals once units are reconciled: $SF = 1{,}000 / \rho_b$ , where $SF$ is the stowage factor in cubic metres per tonne, $\rho_b$ is the bulk density in kilograms per cubic metre, and the constant 1,000 converts kilograms to tonnes. The volume a parcel occupies follows directly as $V = m \times SF = m \times 1{,}000 / \rho_b$ , with $V$ in cubic metres and $m$ the cargo mass in tonnes. For the alumina schedule range, 781 kg/m3 gives $SF = 1{,}000 / 781 = 1.28$ m3/t and 1,087 kg/m3 gives $0.92$ m3/t, exactly the 0.92 to 1.28 m3/t the schedule records.

The relationship is definitional, not empirical. Bulk density is mass divided by the total volume occupied, including the voids between particles, so rearranging for volume per unit mass gives the stowage factor once the density is expressed per tonne rather than per kilogram. The IMSBC schedule quotes both because surveyors and loading software use them interchangeably. The density that matters is the as-loaded bulk density, including void space, not the solid density of alumina, which is near 3,950 kg/m3 for the pure oxide. The figure also assumes a reasonably uniform parcel and low moisture, consistent with the schedule’s 0 to 5 percent range; a wetter parcel is denser and stows tighter than the dry figure implies, and a fine powder settles and densifies slightly over the voyage, though the loading calculation uses the as-loaded figure.

The arithmetic confirms alumina as a deadweight-limited cargo. A 50,000-tonne parcel at 1,000 kg/m3 has $SF = 1.00$ m3/t and a stowed volume of 50,000 m3, about 75 percent of the roughly 67,000 m3 grain capacity of a supramax bulk carrier, so the ship reaches its deadweight with the holds three-quarters full. At the dense end of the range, 1,087 kg/m3, the same tonnage needs 46,000 m3, only 69 percent of the same capacity. The 4,000 m3 difference between the two assumptions is empty space left above the cargo. The reciprocal relationship holds whatever the grade, but the input density does not: ALUMINA, CALCINED at 1,639 kg/m3 stows at 0.61 m3/t, and BROWN FUSED ALUMINA at up to 2,000 kg/m3 stows tighter still at 0.50 m3/t. Using the schedule midpoint instead of the shipper’s declared parcel density, or treating the stowage factor as the cargo’s solid density, throws the volume and the resulting stability calculation off, which is why the figure that governs the plan is the declared bulk density for the actual cargo.

The bulk density and stowage factor for ALUMINA are fixed in the individual schedule of the IMSBC Code, Appendix 1, as amended by Resolution MSC.539(107), the 07-23 amendment set. The Code requires the shipper to declare the cargo’s relevant physical properties under section 4.2, and the master uses the declared density with the ship’s approved loading manual to confirm the stowage stays within tank-top strength and hull-girder limits. The same reciprocal conversion underlies every IMSBC schedule entry, and the IMSBC bulk cargo finder returns both the bulk density and the stowage factor side by side for each cargo so the conversion can be checked directly.

Limitations

This article is a practitioner reference, not the regulation. The authoritative document for any specific shipment is the in-force IMSBC Code individual schedule for the bulk cargo shipping name actually declared, read with the shipper’s cargo declaration for that consignment. The data here matches the schedule as amended by Resolution MSC.539(107), the 07-23 amendment set; the Code is revised on a two-year cycle and a later amendment can change a classification or a parameter. Where the declared name is ALUMINA HYDRATE rather than ALUMINA or ALUMINA, CALCINED, the cargo is Group A and B with a liquefaction hazard and the Group C handling described above does not apply.

The bulk density and stowage factor are schedule ranges, not the figure for a particular parcel. The actual density of the alumina loaded governs the stowage and stability calculation, and it should be taken from the shipper’s declaration and the loading software, not from the schedule range. The master’s judgement on cargo condition, hold readiness, and weather governs the operation, and the master retains the authority under section 4 of the Code to refuse a cargo whose condition or documentation is in doubt. National port regulations and the receiving terminal’s own dust and water-discharge rules may add requirements beyond the schedule.