There are a large number of international steel transportation claims. Due to the large value of steel products, and their own nature determines that they are prone to corrosion, deformation and other damages, the P & I association usually requires its members to arrange inspection and supervision of the finished steel products before shipment, so as to be able to:

-Inspect the stacking of goods before shipment;

-Assist the master to record the surface condition of the cargo before shipment;

-Verify that the ship's hatch covers, hatches and holds are in good condition;

-Review the cargo stowage plan to help the cargo arrive at the destination safely and soundly;

-Supervise the loading process and correct the improper loading procedures and methods in time;

-Supervise the dunnage, binding, fixing and other work of the cargo after boarding, and correct the improper methods in time;

-Ensure that the first mate's receipt and the endorsement on the bill of lading are correct;

-The inspector with inspection qualification shall issue a formal inspection report, sign and declare that he / she is responsible for the objectivity and professionalism of the report. In case of possible cargo damage claim, the inspection report will help the member to defend the claim.

To sum up, pre loading inspection will help to reduce the risk of damage to the goods during the period of the carrier's custody, help to find out and correct the defects related to the closure in advance, ensure that the goods are loaded, operated, stowed and transported by the carrier in the correct way, and help members to distinguish and defend whether it is the responsibility of the carrier in case of cargo damage claims in the future.

Risk of not endorsing B / L

At the request of the shipper, the carrier is required to issue a bill of lading indicating the apparent condition of the goods. The clean bill of lading without annotation is to describe the goods in a good condition. In fact, clean bill of lading can represent that, when loading, a rational carrier can clearly see that the goods are in a good condition after corresponding reasonable inspection, which usually means that the carrier can not defend the situation that the goods have been damaged before they are placed in his custody. For example, if the carrier issues a clean bill of lading for a batch of goods with rust stain, the carrier shall be responsible for the problem of the rust stain. The carrier cannot argue that the goods have rust stain when they are loaded on board, because at this time, they are bound by the clean bill of lading.

In practice, because of the requirements of the terms of the sales contract and the L / C process, shippers usually need to get clean B / L, so even if the goods are obviously not in a good surface condition, they will try to persuade the owners or lessees to issue clean B / L. In order to obtain the clean bill of lading, the shipper will usually provide a LOI, which is generally expressed as that the shipper will compensate the owner or the charterer for all the possible consequences caused by the issuance of the clean bill of lading. But in this case, it is very dangerous for the owner or the charterer to issue the clean bill of lading. First of all, the issuance of bills of lading containing false descriptions is a criminal act in many countries, that is, in essence, it is the act of the shipper and the carrier conspiring to deceive the consignee. Secondly, any form of LOI can hardly be enforced legally. Even if some shippers in some past cases, based on commercial considerations, do compensate shipowners or charterers for their losses according to LOI, there is no guarantee that shippers will be able to make compensation again if there is a larger amount involved in the future or there is a dispute about the extent of damage before loading. Third, if the shipowner or the charterer still issues or entrusts other parties to issue clean bills of lading when he is clearly aware of the damage before loading, it will seriously affect his insurance coverage.

Can we do without pre loading inspection?

For the pre installation inspection company, in order to ensure the objective and effective pre installation inspection work, the insurance and Compensation Association usually has a list of designated inspection companies. Some insurance and indemnity associations require the insured to appoint inspection companies in the designated directory to conduct pre installation inspection, and the cost of pre installation inspection often needs to be borne by the insured. Every time the necessary pre loading inspection increases the carrier's operating cost, resulting in the carrier's unwillingness to conduct pre loading inspection based on economic considerations. In addition, some carriers have carried out steel transportation for many years. They think that they have accumulated a lot of experience in loading, unloading, transportation and storage. Based on the usual practice, they think it is unnecessary to carry out pre loading inspection.

The inspection clauses before steel loading are generally written into the insurance policy, or in the standard insurance clauses of the insurer, or even up to the guarantee clauses. Once triggered, according to the insurance agreement, it will lead to rejection of claims. If the carrier (shipowner) does not carry out the pre loading inspection, no matter based on the years of good experience of the seaman, or considering the increase of operating costs and the possible loss of the ship's time, it will not exempt the cargo damage liability of the voyage and the Association reserves the risk of refusing to pay compensation.

In practice, you will often hear or even experience the case of steel cargo loss and detainment, especially in South Korea, with a high frequency. In some cases, the amount of cargo damage is even up to several million US dollars. Because the ship is not inspected before shipment and violates the inspection terms before steel loading, some insurance and indemnity insurers refuse to release the ship under guarantee, and the cargo damage caused thereby will not be compensated. Some P & I insurers will not bear the lawyer's fee and inspection fee even caused by the subsequent insurance. Ship arrest leads to a large number of ship expenses and ship schedule losses. If they can't be solved properly in time, they will face the risk of being forced to auction in the future, all of which are the losses to be borne by the owners themselves.

It should be said that all P & I insurers have the requirements for inspection of steel goods before shipment, which is a positive measure recognized by the insurer to prevent non underwriting risks and regulate freight behavior. Therefore, the owners or renters should perform the obligation of the insurance contract, strictly carry out the pre loading inspection according to the requirements of the P & I insurer, so as to avoid the loss of their own interests due to breach of contract.