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The SOLAS Container Weight Verification Requirements
Local News
12 August 2015


Re: The SOLAS Container Weight Verification Requirements


Dear Valued Customers,

We are writing to inform you that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS), requiring the shipper to verify and provide the container's gross verified weight to the ocean carrier and port terminal representative prior to it being loaded onto a ship. Container's verified gross weight means the combined weight of a container's tare weight and the weights of all the packages and cargo items, including pallets, dunnage, and other packing material and securing materials packed into the container. A verified container weight is a condition for loading a packed container aboard a vessel for export and for marine terminal operator and vessel operator reference in vessel stowage plans. This requirement will become legally effective on July 1, 2016, after which it would be a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a vessel if the marine terminal operator and vessel operator do not have a verified container weight.

Shipper (or third party arranged by shipper) may obtain the container's gross verified weight by using either of the two methods prescribe by SOLAS regulations:

"Method No. 1:
        * Upon the conclusion of packing and sealing a container and using calibrated and certified equipment, the shipper may weigh, or have arranged that a third party weigh, the packed container. SOLAS Regulation, paragraph 4.1; IMO Guidelines, paragraph 5.1.1. The scale, weighbridge, lifting equipment or other devices used to verify the gross mass of the container must meet the applicable accuracy standards and requirements of the State in which the equipment is being used. IMO Guidelines, paragraph 7.1.

        * Method No. 1 is appropriate to use for any packed container and any kind of goods. 

Method No. 2:
        * The shipper ( or, by arrangement of the shipper, a third party) may weigh all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other packing and securing material to be packed in the container, and add the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses of the container's contents. IMO Guidelines, paragraph 5.1.2."

In case more information is needed about the new requirement, please see the following links from The World Shipping Council:

http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/safety/WSC_Guidelines_for_Implementing_the_SOLAS_Container_Weight_Verification_Requirement.pdf

http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/safety/SOLAS_CHAPTER_VI_Regulation_2_Paragraphs_4-6.pdf

We will make appropriate changes in documentation process in order to comply with the requirement and to secure customer's cargo loading on time. Also, we will keep you posted on any further updates about this new IMO requirement.

If you require more information, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service representatives by email [email protected] or phone number 632-5548037.

Thank you very much for patronizing OOCL!

Yours Faithfully,

Customer Service Department
OOCL (Philippines), Inc.
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