CONTAINER WEIGHT VERIFICATION

Cargo Container Weight Verification Requirement to Take Effect July 1, 2016

Monday, July 13, 2015

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

Effective July 1, 2016, packed cargo containers must have a verified container weight before being loaded onto a vessel. The World Shipping Council recently issued a guidance document to explain how this requirement will affect shippers, carriers and terminal operators.
In November 2014 the International Maritime Organization adopted amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea that require the shipper of a packed container to provide the container’s gross verified weight to the ocean carrier and port terminal representative sufficiently in advance of vessel loading to be used in the preparation of the ship stowage plan. A verified container weight will be a condition for loading a packed container aboard a vessel for export, and the vessel operator and the terminal operator will be prohibited from loading a packed container aboard a vessel for export if the it does not have a verified container weight.
To ensure compliance with the SOLAS amendments, participants within the supply chain (especially shippers, carriers and terminal operators) will need to establish and implement processes to ensure that the verified container weights are provided to the necessary parties in a timely fashion and are used by the terminal operator and vessel operator in the vessel’s container stowage plan. The WSC is urging all regulated parties to be prepared to abide by this requirement by the deadline and states that this guidance identifies elements both of the regulatory requirements and of a non-regulatory nature that regulated parties will need to consider.