Letter of Credit

In one my previous articles, I explained the Difference between Demurrage and Detention..

After reading this, a few of my readers have asked me to explain the causes of demurrage and detention..

There are several reasons a container(s) can incur demurrage and/or detention or combined demurrage and detention.. Here are some of the major reasons..

Shippers who deal with documentary credit know that the clause "Shipped on Board" on the bill of lading carries quite a bit of weight and there is often a lot of discussions, disputes and rejections from the side of the bank if there is any discrepancy in bill of lading in terms of the description of goods, customer details, shipped on board date, stamp or signature.. Since they are being so strict with documentation, one would naturally assume that the banks will verify whether the cargo covered in the bill of lading has actually been loaded on board the ship or not..

Pre-Dating or Back Dating is when the shipper requests the shipping line to show the Shipped on Board date on the bill of lading as a date before the actual sailing of the vessel (example : the vessel actually sails on the 2nd of March but shipper wants the line to show the shipped on board date on the bill of lading as 28th of February)..

Why would a shipper want his bill of lading to be pre-dated or back dated and why would a shipping line reject this request..??

Many a time, shippers have asked shipping lines for "CLEAN ON BOARD" clause on a bill of lading and if the request relates to a container shipment, this might have very well been rejected by the shipping line..

Why do the shipping lines reject this..?? 

Standard Chartered announced the successful completion of the first cross-bank Letter of Credit (LC) transaction between Vietnam and Thailand conducted over blockchain, in partnership with Asian Development Bank (ADB), Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam and Standard Chartered Bank (Thai).

Carrier refuses to show commercial and sales information relating to the cargo on the bill of lading.. Are they being pedantic or are they right..??

Many of you would have come across the term Letter of Credit (L/C)..

If you are a shipping line, you would have heard this term from various customers asking you to expedite the draft bill of lading for checking by the bank or for the release of the bill of lading to be expedited because the shipment is under L/C..

If you a freight forwarder or agent, you may have been put under pressure by the BCO to get all the documents required by the L/C sent to them in time..

If you are a BCO, you may have been told by your bank that the documents submitted do not match the requirements of the L/C and some of the documentation may need to be redone..

So what exactly is a Letter of Credit, what is the need for a letter of credit, who issues it and how does it work..

To the casual onlooker, signing a bill of lading may be a routine, day to day mundane job done by many people across the world.. But the fact is that there are several technicalities to be considered before signing a bill of lading..

It is important to understand that the person signing the bill of lading acknowledges the details recorded on the bill of lading.. Any bill of lading signed with the knowledge of misrepresented facts may be considered to be a fraudulent document and may result in legal consequences for the signatory..

If you are a bill of lading signatory, here are 8 points that you need to consider before signing a bill of lading.. It may be a bit of a long read, but worth it.. 🙂

Shipped on Board Date and Bill of Lading date - can these two dates be different.. What are the implications if they are same or different..??

A Notify Party is one of the many parties involved in a shipment reflected in a Bill of Lading, forming an import part of the documentary process.. This article discusses the role of a Notify Party in a shipment and their importance..

Should the Shipped on Board stamp be signed and the implications whether it is signed or not..

There is a perception in the industry that the use of a House Bill of Lading is dangerous.. Let us explore that topic here and see if there is any merit in that statement..

When answering my last post Question regarding cargo under Letter of Credit, I mentioned that part bills could be a solution for two shipments in a same container where part of the cargo is covered by L/C and the other part is not.. However, there are several criteria/requirement in order for the carrier to be able to issue Part Bills of Lading and for the customer to accept Part Bills of Lading for this particular scenario.. We will examine these criteria/requirements in this post..

In my last post, I posed a question on behalf of a reader about the possibility of two cargoes being shipped under one bill of lading where one cargo is covered under Letter of Credit and other cargo is not.. Should the carrier issue two bills of lading..?? Or is mentioning in the same B/L the goods under L/C and goods that aren't is enough..?? This post is an update where I have discussed the answer to the above question..

What happens if the exporter would like to send in the same container goods covered by L/C in addition to some other goods. Should the carrier issue two bills of lading..?? Or is mentioning in the same B/L the goods under L/C and goods that aren't is enough..??

True to the nature of its business, the business of shipping and freight is a vast ocean covering many issues and areas which sometimes seems unfathomable.. A Bill of Lading is the most important document in this business and there are always several questions surrounding a bill of lading.. This article deals with one such type of bill of lading - Short form bill of lading..

Shipping your cargo without insurance.. Hmmmmm, not a very smart idea.. Several pitfalls await those who attempt this.. Here's a question from a reader based on their historical experience.. All comments welcome on this situation..

An exporter wants to get an Express Release done while the Original Bill of Lading is with the bank.. Is this possible..?? Read this article to find out..

This is the Story of a CIF contract and a Letter of Indemnity.. Seller is delivering CIF to Chinese port. The contract has an LOI provision if the original bill of lading should be lost.. The buyer's bank refuses to make payment without original BOL and will not accept LOI.. What happens next..??