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11 May, 2016
Subject: Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Verified Gross Mass (VGM) Requirements
As July 2016 draws near, we would like to reinforce MOL’s earlier notifications and to give notice once more that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) requiring shippers to verify and provide the container’s gross verified weight to the ocean carrier and port terminal representative before being loaded onto a ship. A verified container weight is a condition for loading a packed container aboard a vessel for export.
The enforcement requirement will come into effect starting July 1, 2016, after which it would be a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a vessel if the vessel operator and marine terminal operator do not have a verified container weight.
To ensure compliance with the new regulation, MOL has been working diligently on enhancements of our systems and processes to facilitate accurate and timely VGM submission.
As a supplement to this letter, we provide you with a MOL VGM guideline leaflet, which covers the basic procedures and MOL policies for our Europe and Africa region. As the regulations and requirements vary by country / port / terminal, please do visit the MOL official website, www.molpower.com, for any further specification.
At this moment we also have to inform you that starting July 1, 2016 we will apply a “VGM lost slot fee” of EUR 100 per container which will be charged to the shipper for any container, which has to be rolled over due to non VGM submission on time for the load list. This will be on top of any additional storage or extra handling costs charged by the terminal.
We will continue to give you further updates on SOLAS developments should there be new developments and other additional issues that may arise.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact your local sales office. Contact details can be found on our website www.molpower.com.
Yours faithfully,
MOL Management
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