Restoring Inventory Impacted by Cargo Damage
February 28, 2025
Cargo damage is a very real concern across the supply chain. While some damage may occur before shipments, it can also happen during the international shipping of goods from overseas factories to U.S. markets and retailers.
Even though receiving a damaged shipment is often beyond your control, there are solutions for restoring your cargo. Through inventory recovery, rework, and remediation programs you can effectively overcome impacts to goods, helping ensure availability and sales potential.
Types of Cargo Damage
Cargo damage can occur in various ways, both in storage and during transit. Knowing the potential causes can help you understand how to repair cargo damage and restore your inventory.
Physical Product Damage
Physical damage to goods can occur due to shifting cargo while in transit, adverse weather conditions, poor stowage practices, improper packaging, and incorrect handling of goods during loading or while in storage. Damage can result in crushed cartons, scratches, dents, broken component parts, stains, and more. Proper protective packaging and correct cargo loading techniques can protect shipments from excessive movement during transit.
Contamination Damage
Product contamination may occur if goods are shared in or adjacent to containers that also house an undesirable product — items like chemicals, oils, greases, or even strong-smelling items, such as garlic, can result in odors affecting a shipment. Contamination can also occur from mold and mildew or exposure to excessive dirt, dust, and other pollutants.
Contamination can happen if containers are not sufficiently inspected, cleaned, and sanitized properly before shipment, and it may lead to significant product loss. There are several ways to mitigate your potential risks:
- Ensuring goods are properly packaged, sealed, and labeled before shipping.
- Regularly cleaning and sanitizing shipping containers.
- Exploring climate and humidity control options during transit to reduce the chance of mold growth.
- Evaluate container suitability for the product which will be shipped and the potential impact of incompatible products that may be within the container.
Infestation Damage
Pests can compromise the integrity of the shipment, with the extent and type of damage dependent on the specific pest. Moths, silverfish, mites, and rodents can all affect cargo in various ways — from contamination caused by their droppings to compromising the potential integrity and quality of different products.
Infestations can result in stains and discoloration, unpleasant odors, and even potential health hazards. You may lower the chances of infestation damage by utilizing preventative measures such as with pre-transit inspections, using pest-resistant packaging materials, regularly sanitizing containers, ensuring that warehouses utilize best practices in pest control, and prioritizing climate control to stop certain pests from thriving.
Water Damage
Condensation, moisture, and climate conditions during the transit of goods from overseas locations can be problematic for cargo in shipping containers. Container rain, which refers to the condensation that forms within shipping containers, is a common cause for water damage to cargo. Rough seas and heavy rains during shipment can also present potential for damage as water may seep into containers that may be compromised in some way due to small holes or poor seals.
Using a variety of moisture mitigation strategies is critical to maximize protection of cargo from water damage.
Benefits of Reworking Inventory Impacted by Cargo Damage
Professional inventory reworking can help your company recover your inventory and offers several significant advantages:
- Reworking allows you to recover damaged goods appropriately and minimize the need to order replacement stock.
- Inventory recovery helps you meet consumer demand and seasonal product needs, ensuring high-volume inventory availability in key selling periods.
- Rather than simply discarding products that can be salvaged, reworking can help conserve valuable resources by restoring the product for its original purpose. This makes reworking a sustainable practice that reduces the environmental impact of discarding high volumes of inventory.
Common Reworks Due to Incidences of Cargo Damage
Rework experts at Quality Corrections & Inspections have several techniques and ways to try to fix damaged cargo. Common reworks include:
Mold Remediation
Water damage, and high humidity conditions, can often be a breeding ground for mold growth on cargo. Mold remediation is a common service provided to clean and sanitize merchandise to recover products and remove organic growth. Quality Corrections & Inspections processes thousands of diverse goods with mold-related issues at both U.S. locations every year.
Odor Removal
Odor removal is a particularly beneficial treatment for all categories of footwear, apparel, and consumer goods affected by a shipment contaminated by odor issues. A rework expert can often remove odor-causing contaminants using a specialized chemical-free ozone process or commercial laundering processes depending upon the type of product affected. These approaches can be successful in eliminating smells while still keeping inventory intact.
Crocking and Color Bleeds
Color bleeding happens when a dye is not colorfast while crocking and the dye transfers from the fabric onto another surface through direct contact. Rework companies partner with reliable textile chemists to find effective solutions for color bleeds and to restore affected apparel.
Hardware Replacement
A variety of cargo damage types can impact hardware on products such as footwear, apparel, furniture, handbags, and much more. Water damage can result in corroding or rusted components parts and hardware for example. Rough seas and poor packaging during transit can result in a variety of physical damages such as breakages, scratches, and other similar impacts requiring hardware replacement.
Hardware replacement is a vital part of inventory reworks to restore products to your specifications. Rework specialists pay special attention to detail to repair and replace hardware on all necessary pieces.
Laundering and Spot Cleaning
Some products are in storage for a long time and may need to be laundered or spot-cleaned to remove odors, dust, and dirt. At Quality Corrections and Inspections, we tailor cleaning services to your inventory with precise settings, wash cycles, temperatures, and detergents. Our careful attention during laundering, drying, and spot cleaning preserves and restores the quality and integrity of your apparel.
Customized Repackaging Services
At Quality Corrections and Inspections, we also provide secondary production services that are integral for restoring shipments such as reticketing, relabeling, and customized repackaging and value-added services. We are equipped to go the extra mile in reworking your inventory, including specialty packaging for high-volume projects.
Work With Quality Corrections and Inspections to Restore Inventory Impacted by Cargo Damage
At Quality Corrections and Inspections, we provide a cost-efficient solution to restore your damaged merchandise, whether affected by water, crocking and bleeding, mold, or odors. We have nearly 40 years of experience providing bulk footwear and clothing repair services to high-volume importers, retailers, and distributors looking to restore soiled and water-impacted goods.
Our expert team carefully applies numerous methods and materials and uses state-of-the-art equipment to rework and restore inventory with quick turnaround times. Contact us today to discuss your inventory rework project or to request a free project analysis.
