News / Liners opt for surcharges on 'heavy' containers on Indian trades

Container lines serving Indian trades have announced surcharges for containers reporting weight in excess of standard thresholds, market updates suggest.

For example, CMA CGM will begin charging an “overweight freight additional surcharge” (OWS) on Indian shipments moving to the US from 25 August of $250 for 20ft laden boxes with a gross weight exceeding 20 metric tonnes, according to the carrier.

It said the OWS would cover trades “from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Middle East Gulf and Red Sea ports of loading to the US Gulf coast and Miami ports of discharge, and all inland destinations via said ports, until further notice.”

And CMA CGM is not alone in charging the extra levy. Maersk has hit the India-US trade with even heftier surcharges on containers weighing over 20 tonnes, since 6 July: $400 for 20ft dry containers shipped from India’s south-east (Chennai/Kolkata) to the US.

The carrier told customers: “When verified gross mass exceeds the weight threshold, [the] heavy load surcharge will be triggered.”

Heavy cargo loads out of India mainly feature steel products, machinery, construction goods and automobile parts, and container weight thresholds vary from carrier to carrier. When demand is strong, carriers tend to tighten their weight rules to try and discourage heavy cargo loads.

The global container industry, with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) at the forefront, enforced an updated “Safety of Life at Sea” (SOLAS) verified gross mass (VGM) mandate in 2016 in a bid to fix the wider problem of overweight containers, one of many reasons identified for the growing number of marine accidents.

In theory, VGM is the weight of the cargo, including dunnage, plus the tare weight of the box. But there have been questions around VGM declarations by shippers, pointing to widespread mismatches between declared and actual weights.

Some carriers have raised concerns over such deliberate misdeclarations, warning customers they had the potential to put supply chain flows at considerable risk.

“We have found that the weight indicated in the VGM and bill of lading does not align with the actual weight measured on the weighing scales at transhipment points,” CMA CGM has told Indian customers.

“It is imperative to understand that misdeclared weight shipments, in addition to being a safety hazard, necessitate extensive reworking procedures with the customs and regulatory requirements of the transhipment country, which can lead to substantial delays, potentially extending transit times by several weeks.”

Carrier sources still admit that while VGM certification is mandatory before a container can be loaded onto the ship, the rules are not being rigorously enforced.

“We continue to come across many instances where exporters have misdeclared weights,” one line manager told The Loadstar.

With the peak season looming, overweight surcharges have again thrown a spotlight on VGM enforcement – and its failure to contain the overloading menace.