In a June 17 press statement, the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association (OCEMA) said that it “strongly supports the use of on-terminal scales to obtain the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of containers.”

The statement came as welcome news to U.S. exporters, who are concerned that individual container lines will impose their own requirements on customers seeking to comply with the new container weight verification rules set to take effect July 1, and that compliance could involve costly new investments in weighing services or equipment.

On a related note, the Paris-based Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal (BIC) has launched a pilot database of container tare (empty) weight data that could be of assistance to exporters as they prepare for the upcoming changes in weight verification rules. More details on the database are available in this news release and from the BIC website.