This paper aims to identify the major risk factors influencing the safety and security of maritime container supply chains (MCSCs) to aid the effective management of the associated risks. A novel risk classification framework, incorporating a Delphi survey and a risk matrix approach, is proposed to identify the major risk factors of significant safety concerns from five perspectives, including society, natural environment, management, infrastructure and technology, and operations. Relevant data for the assessment of all identified risk factors are collected through a large-scale questionnaire survey, and the identified risk factors are quantitatively evaluated regarding their occurrence likelihood and consequence severity. This paper extends the risk analysis from the segment level (e.g., nodes and links) to a supply chain level, and realises the hazard identification and risk evaluation of different MCSC segments on the same plate so that they can be better understood and managed from a systematic perspective. © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.