Changes to Sea Cargo Reporting

CONTAINERISED SEA CARGO REPORTING
When an FCL OBOL cargo report is submitted to the ICS, the ICS will find all HBOL cargo
reports for the same vessel/voyage/container (either FCL, FCX or LCL). If the OBOL
numbers on the OBOL cargo report and HBOL cargo report(s) is the same, then the ICS will
link these documents normally. If the OBOL numbers are different, the ICS will append the
OBOL number from the OBOL cargo report to the HBOL cargo report and link these
documents.
Industry will still be required to continue to report the OBOL numbers provided on commercial
documentation.
Cargo reports may be amended or withdrawn, but unique cargo identifiers such as vessel Id,
voyage number, OBOL number and HBOL number cannot be amended. If any unique cargo
identifiers are required to be amended, the cargo report must be withdrawn and a new report
submitted.
Amendments to, or withdrawals of, HBOL cargo reports via EDI will be accepted only if the
reported or derived OBOL number is quoted within the message.
To clarify the matching process, there are a number of principles that will be applied when
deriving an OBOL number for an HBOL cargo report:
• If two or more OBOL cargo reports with the same vessel/voyage/container exist in the
ICS when a matching HBOL cargo report is submitted, the HBOL cargo report will be
linked to the OBOL cargo report that was submitted first;
• If the linking of the HBOL cargo report to the OBOL cargo report will result in an
impossible situation, such as an FCL HBOL cargo report becoming the child of an
LCL HBOL cargo report, only the OBOL will only be derived for the HBOL cargo
report that was submitted first; and
• An OBOL cargo report will not be linked to an HBOL cargo report with the same
vessel/voyage/container if the transit indicators on the two documents are different
(i.e., one cargo report is for transit cargo and the other is for import cargo).
SCENARIOS
Scenario 1 (below) shows the system behaviour when:
• The freight forwarder reports one HBOL cargo report for an FCL container using an
inaccurate OBOL number;
• The shipping company reports one OBOL cargo report for the FCL container
consigned to the freight forwarder;
• There is no underbond move required as the container is to be delivered from the
wharf.
Scenario 2 (below) shows the system behaviour when:
• The freight forwarder reports one HBOL cargo report for an FCL container using an
inaccurate OBOL number;
• The shipping company reports one OBOL cargo report for the FCL container
consigned to the freight forwarder, mistakenly quoting the incorrect OBOL number, so
the OBOL cargo report is withdrawn, corrected and resubmitted;
• There is no underbond move required as the container is to be delivered from the
wharf.