IMO has provided us with the following information:
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The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), at its ninety-fourth session (17-21 November 2014), adopted, inter alia, amendments to SOLAS regulation VI/2 (see resolution MSC.380(94)), to require the mandatory verification of the gross mass of packed containers.
In addition to the amendments to SOLAS regulation VI/2 and with a view to establishing a common approach for the implementation and enforcement of the SOLAS requirements regarding the verification of the gross mass of packed containers, the Maritime Safety Committee approved the Guidelines regarding the verified gross mass of a container carrying cargo (MSC.1/Circ.1475).
The aforementioned SOLAS amendments introduce two main new requirements:
- the shipper is responsible for providing the verified weight by stating it in the shipping document and submitting it to the master or his representative and to the terminal representative sufficiently in advance to be used in the preparation of the ship stowage plan; and
- the verified gross mass is a condition for loading a packed container onto a ship.
The shipper is defined as a legal entity or person named on the bill of lading or sea waybill or equivalent multimodal transport document (e.g. “through” bill of lading) as shipper and/or who (or in whose name or on whose behalf) a contract of carriage has been concluded with a shipping company (see paragraph 2.1.12 of the Guidelines regarding the verified gross mass of a container carrying cargo (MSC.1/Circ.1475)).
Availability to both the terminal representative and to the master or his representative of the verified gross mass of a packed container sufficiently in advance to be used in the ship stowage plan is a prerequisite for the container to be loaded onto a ship to which the SOLAS regulations apply. However, it does not constitute an entitlement for loading. Nothing in the SOLAS regulations limits the principle that the master retains ultimate discretion in deciding whether to accept a packed container for loading onto his ship.
The verification of the gross mass can be achieved by either of two methods:
- weighing the packed container; or
- weighing all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other securing material to be packed in the container and adding the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses, using a certified method approved by the competent authority of the State in which packing of the container was completed.
The amendments to SOLAS regulation VI/2 were accepted on 1 January 2016 and will enter into force on 1 July 2016.
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