FMC approves six-port container weight agreement

FMC Chairman Mario Cordero: "I hope that other port authorities and terminal operators will be inspired to establish their own innovative processes to ease SOLAS VGM compliance."

JUNE 28, 2016 —The Federal Maritime Commission voted unanimously to allow the Port Operations and Safety Discussion Agreement (FMC Agreement No. 201233) to go into effect.

The FMC says the new discussion agreement will guarantee shippers a flexible approach to meet the new SOLAS-mandated requirements for the provision of container weights at six U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports.

The commission also granted the agreement expedited review allowing it to become effective prior to the July 1, 2016, implementation date of the new IMO requirements.

“Permitting this agreement to take effect as quickly as possible was in the best interests of all parties and I am pleased that the commission was able to allow this agreement to go into force without requiring additional information,” said FMC Chairman Mario Cordero. “The parties and commission staff worked hard to come to consensus on how to best balance the desire to create this additional option for filing container weight information that would satisfy guidance issued by the U.S Coast Guard, with the need to tailor the agreement to the specific circumstances at hand.”The

Port Operations and Safety Discussion Agreement permits six operating port authorities located on the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts (Georgia; Houston; Massachusetts; North Carolina; South Carolina; and Virginia) to take the weight of a container determined at a terminal gate and report it to an ocean carrier for the purposes of satisfying new amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Treaty mandating the reporting of the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of a container.

“Ensuring that containers are not overweight is a laudable goal that the Commission supports, but there is no reason to not be flexible, practical, and pragmatic in providing ways to comply with these new obligations,” said Chairman Cordero. “I hope that other port authorities and terminal operators will be inspired to establish their own innovative processes to ease SOLAS VGM compliance.”