Ship quantity

The biggest problem of ship's figure is its conflicting role with Bill of Lading

Traditionally

a) BL - acknowledge receipt of goods by vessel LOADED into the ship's Hold/Tanks. BL figure has legal implication as it implied transfer of custodian of ownership form exporter to carrier. Normally it refer to quantity ALREADY loaded into the ship's hold or tanks

b) Ship figure in bulk is also traditionally by trade practice used as a guide and shore quantity is used as BL. Reason

a. Vsl afloat do not give accurate sounding/ullaging due to the swaying and movement of the ship
b. Vsl can be down by stern/head and listing affecting the accuracy of sounding, even tough some vls do provide correction
c. Some old vessel is not even calibrated

Unlike packages that are countable, weight or volume generated by sounding or ullaging are never absolute. (see previous article). Even the best calibrated ship's tank with sea as calm as solid ground, there will be a difference. (Alternatively oil transfer from one calibrated shore tank to another shore tank will bound to be different even assuming no skin loss)

When there is difference the trade practice is that the tolerance should be less than 0.5%. Traditionally, for trade practice, Ship's Owner liability is ship's figure from loadport to discharge Port. To bulk oil carrier, BL quantity, being established at shore, is not their responsibility. The often Disclaimer clause "Quantity & Quality unknown to Master"

This gentlemen approach has been challenge recently due to

- bigger vessel - the 0.5% can come to 100mt
- the fast pace of Indonesian CPO expansion resulted in many river ports with dubious loading practice,
- Loading involved transfer of non-heated barge to ship

ie there is indeed actual loss of few hundred tons of oils and buyers started to lay claims. Some insurance start to refute the claims stated Owner by issuing BL knowing very well vessel figure is different. Others resort to arrest the vessel forcing the owner to pay at least some of the losses (esp in Pakistan and India, now China has started to learn the trade)

When ship's owner refuse to issue BL based on shore figure and insisted on ship's figure, there is several implication

a) Shipper will insist shore as BL as per Trading terms - PORAM OR FOSDA
b) Many country take BL as official for duty & tax other. If there is discrepancy it may problem to the local authority.
c) Trader will suffer as they pay shipper based on shore and at disport faced claims from buyer for short loading