Friday, 25 March 2016 16:05 |

THE SOLAS VGM RULE: - THE CONTAINER WEIGHT RULE APPLICABLE ON JULY 1ST

Overweight containers present a risk to industry workers, vessels, equipment, can upset operational reliability, and produce higher costs. Following a number of serious incidents, the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the World Shipping Council (trade organizations that represent container liner companies) approved new guidelines with the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) requirement which will come into force on July 1, 2016. The amendment to the international convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires the VGM to be documented before containers are loaded on ships. Shippers must physically weigh their goods using one of two prescribed processes:

Method 1: obtaining the VGM by weighing the container twice, once when empty and then again after loading.
Method 2: weighing all the contents separately and adding the container tare weight.

Under either method, the weighing equipment used must be certified and meet calibration requirements. The party packing the container cannot use the weight somebody else has provided except for “Individual, original sealed packages that have the accurate weight of the packages, packing contents and cargo items clearly and permanently marked on their surfaces which do not need to be weighed again when they are packed into the container.” e.g. TV’s boxes clearly marked by the manufacturer with the weight stated.

Shippers will be required to declare and verify container weights prior to shipping. If a container is overweight or shippers do not comply with the new regulations, they could face delays, fines and penalties. This is critical to shippers, as they do not want to incur extra costs, delays or upset a customer. Shipper’s associations worldwide are actively working on the implications of this new rule. The following summary provides additional information.

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The container lines recent history

The shipping industry has been moving on with further concentration as here below reminded.

However, 2018 has recorded even lower scores in terms of schedule reliablity. Not only vessels are getting later but when they are late, the delay is further than the years before. With very slim global profit (when positive) carriers are reluctant to increase vessel speed for schedules recovering. Other reasons come from more and more port congestions at loading/discharge and the truck driver’s shortages in USA and also at countries of origin. Improvments would be expected and welcome but the recent performances do not support positive changes.

More than ever you can rely on TRANSO team and services to assist you for monitoring as accurately as possible the supply chain of your wine imports.

2014: Hapag-Lloyd integrated with CSAV

2015: Cosco merged with China Shipping

2016: CMA-CGM acquired APL

2017: Hapag-Lloyd integrated UASC

2017: Maersk acquired Hamburg Süd

2018: Cosco acquires OOCL

2018: ONE as a merge of K Line, MOL & NYK

Change in MED services

Both Ocean Alliance and THE Alliance services from MED to US East are merging into one single service as from early December.

The 2 existing services are deploying 4500 TEU vessels. The new one will deploy 8500 TEU vessels. The total capacity is slightly lower.

However in case of delays or blank sailings, alternative are very limited ; for instance, from FOS, there is no direct sailing alternative (only via Algeciras with Maersk or Valencia with MSC).

Carriers are announcing this is to recover from low freight rates and improve the service reliability as we have all noted less accuracy and more lead times in worldwide shipments.

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France: Difficulties on road

There are still difficulties to drive and move the containers on time. The spontaneous social movment protesting against the rising fuel costs in France is continuing after its peak day on Saturday. Less roads are blocked but there are still some backlogs and local actions which make the domestic transportation difficult and causing delays.

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News

BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU 2016

THE SOLAS VGM RULE: - THE CONTAINER WEIGHT RULE APPLICABLE ON JULY 1ST

PANAMA CANAL INAUGURATION DATE : JUNE 26, 2016

The container lines recent history

Change in MED services

France: Difficulties on road