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NCBFAA: Customs Wants More Import Data
Agency seeking entry information from traders

Thu Mar 17, 2005  By Bill Mongelluzzo
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

SAN DIEGO -- As U.S. Customs and Border Protection refines its security programs, importers and brokers will be asked to help the agency secure better data earlier in the supply chain.

Tom Bush, director of screening and targeting for CBP's Automated Commercial Environment, told a meeting of customs brokers that the bare-bones data filed before a shipment leaves a foreign port is not good enough to fight terrorism.

"Manifest data is good. Entry data is better. Entry summary data is even better," Bush told the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.

Customs, since Sept. 11, 2001, has required that vessel operators file basic information on a shipment such as a general description of the cargo, the port of exit and the consignee 24 hours before the container is loaded on to a vessel at an overseas port.

While the 24-hour manifest rule gives Customs time to screen and inspect risky shipments before they leave foreign ports, manifest data does not provide the level of detail needed to detect anomalies in shipping patterns, Bush said.

After a shipment leaves a foreign port, importers or customs brokers file more detailed information on the foreign exporter and the cargo that could help Customs detect subtle discrepancies. However, by the time the agency receives the more detailed information contained in the entry and entry summary, the point of interception of a possible weapon of mass destruction becomes the U.S. port of entry.

Bush said Customs wants "entry summary-type" data as far back in the supply chain as possible. Ideally, it would like to go a step further and receive the business-to-business type of data found in purchase orders and booking documents when the cargo is stuffed into a container at the overseas factory.

If the container is properly sealed and loaded into "smart containers" that can detect if the shipment was tampered with during the commercial hand-offs from the factory to the foreign port, Customs will achieve an even higher level of security, Bush added.

U.S. Customs, however, does not have the authority to regulate foreign exporters. However, importers can use the leverage of their purchasing power to get overseas factories to implement such safeguards. Customs brokers and logistics providers, with their increasingly sophisticated tracking devices, can ensure that shipments remain secure throughout the supply chain, Bush said.

Importers, brokers, carriers and other logistics providers are helping Customs to secure international supply chains by joining the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. As previously reported, the agency this year will establish a higher level of C-TPAT certification that could include requirements for tamper-proof seals and smart containers.

Customs will reward this new category of C-TPAT participants by virtually eliminating inspections of the shipments at U.S. ports, Bush said.

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California Ports Plan to Raise Charges and Contemplate
Storage Free Time Reduction
 21 Mar 2005, CIFFA eBulletin

The Journal of Commerce reports that California's ports are expected to increase their rates charged to shipping lines and terminal operators by 5 per cent as of July 1, 2005.  Port executives cited increased costs due to security as well as infrastructure development and maintenance as some of the reasons for the higher rates.

Also, California's container ports are struggling to expand their infrastructure to accommodate the increasing trade with Asia. Containerized imports increased about 14 per cent in 2004, and analysts predict another year of at least 12-per cent growth.

The ports also considered a proposal to reduce the amount of time containers can be kept on marine terminals for free before a storage fee is charged. They postponed action on that issue in order to allow more time for input from shippers, customs brokers and others in the transportation community.

The ports are considering two proposals. They may reduce free time by one day, to four days from five days at present for imported containers and to six days from seven days at present for exports.

Also, the ports are considering starting the free-time clock running the day after a container is unloaded from a vessel. At present, free time does not begin until the entire vessel is discharged. With today's mega-ships taking three to five days to work, containers that come off first get as many as five extra free days compared to those that are unloaded on the fifth day.

Freight forwarders and customs brokers urged the ports to refrain from reducing free time or changing the procedures for calculating free time at least until the terminal operators have a mechanism to notify consignees and brokers as soon as a container is removed from a vessel. Otherwise, the brokers noted, they would spend hours on the phone each day checking on the status of thousands of containers that will be discharged from the vessels.

This dialogue is in marked contrast to the unilateral actions taken by Vancouver terminal operators that reduced free time storage at the port without any consultation with the community. Quite obviously, in Canada, we have not yet grasped the fundamentals of Logistics 101....  There is a high interdependence between the movement of goods and communication. One without the other is a perfect recipe for delays, gridlock and congestion as we have experienced in the more recent past. All modes need to step up to the plate by acknowledging the need for a shared information market place that allows for better planning! After all, maximizing asset utilization is a key to a healthy bottom line!

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New Generation of Ships will Force Big Change

Twenty miles of trucks...And six double-stack trains. That’s what they will be looking at each time an 8,000-TEU container ship disgorges a full load of boxes at Long Beach Terminal. These big ships, replacing vessels about half their size in the Trans-Pacific trade, are arriving in force at West Coast ports for the first time this year. The larger ships are staying in port twice as long as the ships they’re replacing, and making twice the demand on rail and truck capacity. With a rough 50-50 split between rail and truck moves, each of the ships fills about a half-dozen stacktrains and 2,000 truck chassis, which with their tractors are enough to stretch approximately 20 miles. The stress on ports, marine terminals and inland infrastructure will only get greater. 

China Ocean Shipping Co. last month ordered four 10,000-TEU vessels for delivery in 2008 and 2009. Other lines have ordered a total of 34 ships with a capacity of 9,000 to 9,500 TEUs. In all, global shipping lines have firm orders for more than 150 vessels with capacities of at least 8,000 TEUs. While these vessels are too large to transit the Panama Canal and cannot call at East Coast ports via that route, East Coast ports nevertheless anticipate that they will be welcoming a steady stream of post-Panamax vessels by 2006 or 2007. Shipping lines could launch five or six all-water services to the East Coast via the Suez Canal over the next two years. East Coast ports must therefore deepen their channels to as must as 50 feet as well as expand the capacity of their marine terminals if they plan to cash in on the mega-ship boom.  Shipping industry executives are concerned that U.S. ports can’t accommodate the vessels scheduled for delivery over the next three years. (The Journal of Commerce, 2/28/2005.)