China Logistics News Network: The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) to make it mandatory for containers to be verified for gross weight before shipment. The regulations will be implemented worldwide on July 1, 2016. Elizabeth Turnbull and Marcia Peruca wrote an analysis of the resulting obligations of shippers, carriers and port terminals and the preparations that the industry should make.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) to make it mandatory for containers to be verified by gross weight before shipment. The regulations will be implemented worldwide on July 1, 2016. Elizabeth Turnbull and Marcia Peruca wrote an analysis of the resulting obligations of shippers, carriers and port terminals and the preparations that the industry should make. This paper focuses on the impact on shippers.

Part I: Impact on shippers

1. background

With more than 50 years of maritime container transportation, people will wonder why mandatory container weighing has only been implemented this year.

False declaration of container weight can cause container stacking collapse, casualties and damage to equipment and cargo. Accidents caused by false declaration of container weight are common. Based on the purpose of reducing and eliminating accidents caused by container weight, the industry has launched an initiative to force container weighing. After years of consultation and discussion, the IMO Maritime Safety Committee adopted an amendment to Chapter VI of the SOLAS Convention in November 2014 to make weighing of containers mandatory. The amendment will come into effect on July 1 this year. This regulation will facilitate the correct stowage of containers on board and reduce and avoid related accidents.

The introduction of new regulations will affect all parties involved in the container shipping supply chain, with shippers bearing the brunt.

2. what a shipper is

In order to facilitate the effective implementation of this provision, IMO has developed the "Guidelines for the Verification of the Weight of Cargo Containers by the Cumulative Method" (hereinafter referred to as "the Guidelines").

The Guide defines "shipper" as a legal entity or person designated as a shipper on a bill of lading or sea waybill or other equivalent multimodal bill (e. g. by "bill of lading"), and/or a person who enters into a contract of carriage with or on behalf of a shipping company.

In the actual working group, the shipper may be the owner of the goods (the owner or exporter of the goods), the NVOCC, or the company or individual responsible for the LCL.

3. specific requirements

Three months before the container is to be shipped, the shipper decides which method to take to obtain a total weight verification (VGM).

(I) Weighing Method Selection

SOLAS provides two methods for container weighing:

Overall weighing method: the overall weighing of the cargo container with calibrated and certified equipment;

Cumulative calculation method: The weight of all packages and goods in the container is weighed by the weighing method approved by the competent authority of the country where the container is placed, and the overall weight of the cargo container is calculated by adding up the weight of the chassis, liner, other fixing materials and the container itself.

The choice of weighing method depends entirely on the type of cargo to be transported and the weighing facilities available to the shipper. For example, Method 2 cannot be used for commodities that cannot be weighed independently due to their own characteristics, such as scrap iron, unpacked grain and other bulk goods.

In order to obtain VGM and other necessary certificates, shippers also need to carefully review the specific packaging and weighing requirements of SOLAS Contracting States. For example, a notice (MNG534) issued by the UK maritime authority (UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency) provides that weighing using Method 2 should use existing credit systems (e. g. ISO9000), while weighing using Method 1 should be implemented with its weighing and measuring rules.

(II) VGM certificate

The Shipper shall ensure that the VGM Certificate for the Container is signed by the Shipper or a person authorized by the Shipper, and that the VGM Certificate is delivered to the Master or his representative and to the Jetty Representative in advance upon request of the Master or his representative for use in developing the stowage plan on board.

The shipper shall provide the master or his representative and the terminal operator with the certified gross weight of the loaded container as early as possible in the form of a transport document, which may be part of the shipping instructions submitted to the carrier or a separate supporting document, and most importantly, must indicate that its total weight is "VGM". The information may be submitted in electronic form and the signature may be the electronic signature of the carrier or replaced by the name of the authorized person (in capital letters).

Although the SOLAS amendment requires the shipper to submit the VGM to the master and the terminal, the IMO Guidelines clarify that the shipper's delivery of the VGM to the master is in compliance with the obligations under the Convention and the master may deliver the VGM to the terminal operator. However, the shipper is required to submit the weight verification to the terminal operator when the container is transported to the relevant terminal facilities.

The new regulations do not specify when this information needs to be provided, only before the loading plan is prepared. In order to ensure the smooth loading of containers, the shipper must communicate with the carrier and the terminal operator in advance to clarify the delivery time.

In addition, if these provisions are not met, the shipper may face severe penalties, which depend on the different provisions of each State.

In view of this, the shipper should carefully consider the new provisions of the Convention and the allocation of costs and responsibilities related to container weighing in order to evaluate and modify the terms of the contract.