December 2015

“A new safety regulation from the International Maritime Organization requiring shippers to verify container weight is roiling exporters around the world,” the WSJ Logistics Report’s Loretta Chao writes. The shippers say the new requirements will add complexity to cargo handling and that getting containers accurately weighed at docks is too complicated to hold one party entirely responsible. But shippers may have no choice—carriers and port terminal operators say if shippers do not provide certified weight information by July 2016 when the rule kicks in, they will turn away containers at the gates or leave goods on shore. With wide variations in how container weight is set, misreported measures have led to accidents from toppling stacks of boxes to capsizing ships.

Source: Wall Street Journal

SOLAS Container Weight Verification Rules Become Effective July 1, 2016. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted new requirement under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention that require shippers to provide a verified weight for every packed container as a condition for vessel loading. These new industry requirements from Maritime Safety Committee become effective worldwide on July 1, 2016. The shipper (named on the carrier’s bill of lading) may use one of the two methods to determine the verified weight of the packed container:

1. Method No. 1:The shipper may weigh or have a third party weigh the packed, sealed container.
2. Method No. 2: The shipper may weigh or have a third party weigh each package stuffed in the container including the packing and securing material and adding those weights to the container’s tare weight marked on the door end of the container (Estimating the weight of the container’s contents is not permitted).

Under either Method 1 or Method 2, the weighing equipment used must meet the accuracy standards of the country where the equipment is used. Also under either method, the declaration of the verified weight must be signed and dated by the shipper or by its duly authorized representative and to provide to the carrier via either electronic interchange channels or a physical shipping document.

Source: World Shipping Council