Reducing shifts of the cargo's center of gravity has what effect on stability?

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Stability is about how weight distribution affects the ship’s tendency to tip. The transverse (side-to-side) stability depends on the weight spread across the beam and how this interacts with the buoyant forces when the hull heels. If the cargo’s center of gravity shifts, the lateral weight distribution can move with the heel, changing the metacentric height in the transverse plane and often reducing the restoring moment that returns the ship upright. When those shifts are minimized, the lateral weight distribution stays more uniform, so the transverse metacentric height remains steadier and the ship resists rolling more effectively. So reducing cargo CG shifts makes the vessel more stable against sideways tipping—transverse stability improves. Shifts in the fore-aft direction would influence longitudinal stability more, but the scenario described focuses on side-to-side effects, hence the improvement is in transverse stability.