With the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS amendment due to come into force on July 1, 2016, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has been announced as the first carrier globally to accept container weights provided by terminals at US ports, which it will begin to do on July 1, according to JOC.com.
The carrier said in a statement: “HMM will accept the scale weights (total weight less tractor and chassis) received at our participating marine terminal partner gates upon gate-in. This approved methodology will not require the shipper to provide any additional VGM.
“The HMM program will determine the tare weight based upon the container number from our fleet file and will auto-calculate the VGM weight on behalf of our shippers.”
It was previously reported that international non-profit organisation Bureau International des Containers had announced that it has created a database containing the tare weights of containers globally.
The database has been invented to give assistance to shippers and enable them to be better prepared for the new SOLAS amendment.
This follows a recent report from Maersk Line, stating that it believes that the industry can expect to see a bumpy first six months from when the rule comes into effect.
