Customs Brokerage

Exporter need not necessarily be the actual seller of the cargo or the entity actually concluding the deal.

Shipper = is a person or company or entity that is shown in all the shipping documents (bill of lading, commercial invoice, packing list) as the party responsible for procuring and/or placing the order for shipment and maybe also for arranging the freight payment etc.

Shipper shown on the bill of lading need not necessarily be a registered exporter.. A Freight Forwarder can also be shown as the shipper on a lines bill of lading.

There are a lot of international traders based all over the world (say London) shipping cargo from one country (say South Africa) to another country (say India) and on the bills of lading that are released for such shipments, the shipper could be the trader in London..

So the short answer to the above question is YES OF COURSE IT CAN.

GRI stands for General Rate Increase, GRI is basically an adjustment of freight rates across all or specific trade routes during a specific time frame.

This is applied by shipping lines according to their requirement and the quantum of the rate increase is decided by them, generally based on the supply and demand on that route.

This means that if for example on the Shanghai/Rio Haina route your freight rate was USD.1000/20′ & USD.2000/40′, with effect from 1st of September, the rate will become USD.1300/20′ & USD.2600/40′.

CY stands for Container Yard.. Container Yard is a place within a port or terminal where containers are stored before it is loaded on the ship in the case of exports or offloaded from the ship in the case of imports.

In some cases in the body of a bill of lading you might have seen a notation CY/CY or in the Port of Loading or Port of Discharge fields in the bill of lading, you might have seen this added after the name of the port, like so (Caucedo CY).

This means that the responsibility of the carrier either begins (in the case of Port of Load) or ends (in the case of Port of Discharge) at the Container Yard.

In some ports, as part of the export process, the container maybe received at a point other than the Container Yard and there might be an additional movement involved (with or without cost) to move it to the Container Yard.

Similarly as part of the import process, the container might have to be moved from the Container Yard to a different yard or staging area (with or without cost) before it is loaded on the importers truck.

In such cases, if the notation of CY/CY is present on the bill of lading, the shipper/consignee will be responsible for any movement, costs or risks before the container is delivered to the carrier at the CY or picked up from the CY.

Simply put, Transhipment = the act of off-loading a container from one ship and loading it onto another ship.

If a negotiable bill of lading is lost, stolen, or destroyed, a few measures can be taken

1. Place an advertisement in the local press about the “loss” or “nullification” of the original bill
2. A court order may be secured, which advises the carrier (shipping line) to deliver the goods to the holder of the title of the goods, based on a surety bond given by the entity claiming the goods, for an amount approved by the court.
3. The carrier also should receive a Letter of Indemnity indemnifying the carrier or any person injured by delivery, against liability under the outstanding original bill.. The court also may order payment of reasonable costs and attorney’s fees to the carrier.
4. Certain lines accept a Letter of Indemnity if it is signed by a bank who would then take joint liability to return the original bills of lading (if found).

However, a few precautions also needs to be taken such as :

1. An advertisement about the loss is never a complete defense as regards liability for wrongful delivery.
2. It is merely an evidence that the loss occurred and that the original title holder had the intention of cancelling the original bill of lading issued.
3. Carrier should understand who holds the title to the cargo and issue a duplicate set only to that entity as there have been cases where the entity that doesn’t hold the title to the goods has advertised about the loss and has convinced the carrier to issue second set of originals whereas the first set is still in the hands of its legal owner and was not actually lost.