Exporters face new China customs crackdown

Exporters sending recyclable materials to ports in China may be required to present paperwork for each shipment at least 24 hours before they are on the water, under a fresh Customs initiative likely to be rolled out across the countrys ports.

Since the end of last month, officials from Chinas General Administration of Customs have toughened the administrative requirements for exporting goods including materials for recycling into the port of Shanghai.

The pre-shipment notification policy, which came into effect from June 28, requires details and photographs of the contents of any load destined for the city to be presented to customs officials at least 24 hours ahead of departure.

Previously shipping lines would have been able to present loading details up to two or three days after the departure of a vessel.

According to Chinas General Administration of Customs, the move, which was first trialled in Shanghai in 2009, is intended to safeguard international trade into the port. It is expected that the policy may now be replicated across the country.

‘No document, no load’

As a result some shipping lines have imposed a no document, no load policy for all shipments travelling via the city. Exporters failing to comply with the new requirements face the possibility of consignments being left at the dockside, which can incur a cost of 45 per container per day.

In order to ensure that they are not caught out by the new regulations exporters have also asked depots supplying materials to provide full loading details and photographs of consignment promptly to avoid delays.

In a letter to customers, China Shipping UK, the UK arm of the Asian shipping giant, stated: It has been announced that, after the initial testing period of the China Customs Advance Manifest Filing which began in 2009, the port of Shanghai will now strictly implement implement the new procedures with effect from the 28th June 2014. Initially, this will only affect cargo destined for Shanghai or transhipping via Shanghai to any other port but it will encompass all types of cargo as well as empty containers.

The toughening of policy from China follows robust action on the quality of imports of recovered material by Chinese customs authorities throughout 2013, nicknamed the Green Fence. This led to volatility in the export market as some loads that would previously have been accepted at Chinese reprocessing facilities were rejected by customs officials.