News

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO EXPORTERS TO VENEZUELA

09/11/2006

As a consequence of anti smuggling enforcement law by the Venezuelan Customs a new legislation concerning seals has been brought into effect.

No containers can be discharged at Venezuela ports without a proper seal and the seal must match with what is being declared on both the Original Bill of Lading and on the manifest.

Any container found without a seal or presenting discrepancies with manifest and original bill of lading will be detained for customs inspections pending release from the Ministry of Justice.

This could result in containers being held for an undetermined period of time, up to several months.

As a result of this regulation we at MSC are compelled to implement the following procedure:

No containers bound to Venezuela will be loaded unless they are delivered with a proper seal to the terminal. Any additional costs occurring at POL due to non-compliance will be for the account of the cargo.
The seal must be a high security seal (HSS) or commonly called bolt seal.
No other seal will be accepted as any other may be easily damaged during the voyage.
Seal number must then be duly reflected on shipping instruction (master bill of lading) and a declaration from the Shipper to this effect must accompany these instructions.

Mediterranean Shipping Company declines any responsibility arising from non-compliance of said procedure and reserves their rights to ask shippers to indemnify MSC for any extra costs or expenses which might incur.

We thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

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