Home


The CDI is incorporated under the law of the Netherlands as the Stichting Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI) and operates as a non-profit making foundation.

CDI is managed by a Board of Directors consisting of seven individuals nominated by the participating chemical companies. The Board of Directors establishes policy and is responsible for overall affairs of the foundation. Individual Executive Boards are elected to oversee and direct the staff managing day to day activities for the Marine, Terminals and Marine Packed Cargo Schemes.
CDI-M was created in 1994 by the chemical industry for the chemical industry in order to constantly improve the safety and quality performance of marine bulk transportation for the chemical industry; and to provide chemical companies with cost effective systems for risk assessment, thus assisting their commitment to Responsible Care and the Code of Distribution Management Practice.

CDI-M now provides annual inspection reports on the world fleet of chemical and liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tankers with over 900 ship owners and over 5000 ships participating in the scheme. The inspections are conducted by over 100 globally CDI-M Accredited inspectors located in ports around the world. CDI-M provides a single set of reliable and consistent inspection data which chemical companies can use with confidence in their risk reduction process.

Costs and charges
CDI-M makes charges for its service sufficient only to cover costs of its management and operations. Participating chemical companies, pay an annual subscription based on the number of ships they charter and a nominal access fee for each report taken from the database. There are no participation charges for ship owners.

Non-chemical companies
Non-Chemical companies with a legitimate interest in the operation and technical condition of a ship may apply to be a non-voting associate participant, allowing them electronic access to ship reports.

Port State Control
Ships having a CDI-M report on the active database are listed on EQUASIS (European Quality Shipping Information System). Port State Control Memoranda participating in EQUASIS may be granted access to extract statutory information from the ship inspection reports on the active database free of charge.