Port of Charleston to provide verified box weight for $25 fee

The S.C. Ports Authority has spelled out how it will use on-terminal scales to help shippers comply with new SOLAS rules for declaring the accurate weight of containers to their ocean carrier.    The South Carolina Ports Authority on Thursday said it will charge $25 to provide container weight verification on behalf of shippers at the Port of Charleston to comply with new international maritime safety regulations.
   Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard announced its approval for U.S. ports to verify the weight of containers, saying that existing U.S. laws and regulations are equivalent to the upcoming regulation under the Safety of Life at Sea convention.
   The Port of Charleston for years has weighed every export container received at its terminals on calibrated scales to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations requiring terminals to receive the gross weight of the container, or use its own scales to obtain the weight, before it is hoisted by any cargo handling equipment.
   “It has been our position all along that we have employed a best practice in safely loading ships in our port for the last 20 years due to our weighing of all export containers,” SCPA President Jim Newsome said in a statement. 
   More stringent rules that go into effect July 1 force shippers to provide the verified gross mass (VGM) of laden containers to the vessel operator in advance. The objective is to reduce the possibility of accidents from resulting from overweight containers creating vessel instability or falling from lift equipment at terminals by requiring accurate weight information instead of ballpark estimates, or deliberately falsified measurements, provided on the manifest.
   The liner industry pushed for the changes through the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization, of which the United States is a member.
   The rule is technically directed at carriers by prohibiting them from loading a box without the certified container weight, but the responsibility mostly falls on exporters.
   Under the IMO’s amended safety convention, shippers can weigh the loaded container or weight the cargo, including packing materials, and add it to the tare mass of the container. Shippers are allowed to use third parties to meet the requirement, but in all cases must sign the manifest, shipping instructions or separate document confirming the VGM. The option of adding the tare weight has proven controversial, with some exporters complaining it is unfair and burdensome for them to tally the weight of the empty box that belongs to the carrier.
   If the shipper has no provision to weigh the container before its arrival at the port, weight verification can be completed at the terminal if there is calibrated and certified equipment, according to IMO rules.
   In recent weeks, Newsome has made clear the SCPA would provide that information to shippers, if requested. On Thursday, his agency outlined in greater detail how the process will work.
   All scales used to weight export containers at the North Charleston and Wando Welch terminals will be certified annually by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The port’s scales were last certified in January.
   An export shipper that provides a timely request will receive the estimated gross weight of the container in the following way:
     • Gross weight of tractor (including estimate of fuel weight), container, chassis,and cargo will be determined by weighing the entire unit on the scale.
     • The computer system will automatically deduct the weight of the tractor, chassis, refrigerated generator set and fuel as provided by the truck driver to the interchange clerk, along with the posted tare weight of the chassis.
     • After these deductions, the gross weight of the container and cargo will be electronically provided to the shipper and the shipping line.          
   While this approach conforms with the methodology outlined by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee in its “Guidelines Regarding the Verified Gross Mass of a Container Carrying Cargo” published June 9, 2014, in providing this weight, SCPA said it does not certify its accuracy. Rather, it is a best effort to ensure the provision of an accurate weight using the methodology above.
   “It is the clear responsibility of the shipper to provide the required weight certification to the shipping line as specified in the SOLAS regulations,” the SCPA said. The export shipper will pay a fee of $25 per container weighed, it added, and billing and payment arrangements must be made prior to the provision of such services.
   On Wednesday the Georgia Ports Authority said it would transmit VGM data to shippers and stevedores in real-time, free of charge, from the scales it already uses at inbound gates to weigh all export loads. And Ports America, the private operator of the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Terminal, said it would offer container weighing services for an undisclosed fee.
   Most terminals have said that they won’t even accept ocean boxes through their gates without weight documentation because they don’t want the hassle of storing them while that data is tracked down.