IATA Lithium Battery Addendum – Effective April 1, 2016

Effective as of April 1, 2016 there are two new significant changes for IATA in regards to lithium batteries.

1. Under packing instructions 965 in regards to shipping Lithium ion batteries (stand alone) in Section IA, IB, and II the state of charge of these batteries cannot exceed 30% of the cells rated design capacity. If these batteries would need to be shipped out a charge of greater than 30% you would have to obtain the approval by the state of orgin and the state of the operator to do so.

2. When shipping Lithium ion batteries (stand alone) that fall under Section II packing instructions 965 and Lithium metal batteries (stand alone) that fall under packing instructions 968 Section II you will now be limited to shipping one battery per package per overpack. If you would need to exceed these quantities you would have to ship these items as fully regulated. Packages and overpacks of these stand alone lithium ion batteries when prepare in accordance with Section II Packing instructions 965 must be offered to the operator separately from any cargo that does not fall under these instructions and must not be loaded into a unit load device before offered to the operator.

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