Trade glossary
The terms that decide whether a container clears on time — defined plainly, each with its sources. Where a number exists in our operational baseline, it is on the page.
Documents
- Arrival Notice — A notification sent by the carrier or its agent to the consignee and notify party named on the bill of lading, stating that a shipment is due to arrive or has arrived, and setting out the charges to be settled before the cargo is released.
- Bill of Lading — The transport document a carrier issues for goods received, which works at once as a receipt, as evidence of the contract of carriage, and, when made out to order, as the document of title to the cargo.
- Certificate of Origin — A document certifying the country in which goods were produced, issued by a chamber of commerce or a designated authority, used by customs to apply duty rates, quotas, trade remedies and preferential tariff treatment.
- Delivery Order — A written instruction from an ocean carrier or its agent to the terminal, authorising release of specified containers to a named party. Issued once title documents are surrendered or released electronically and the carrier's charges are settled, and required before the container can gate out.
- Packing List — A shipping document listing the physical contents of a consignment package by package: quantities, shipping marks, net and gross weights, dimensions and which goods are in which package or container, without prices.
- Phytosanitary Certificate — An official certificate issued by the exporting country's national plant protection organisation stating that a consignment of plants or plant products was inspected and found to meet the importing country's phytosanitary requirements, including any treatment the importer's rules demand.
- Pre-Shipment Inspection Certificate — A certificate from an inspection agency at the loading end, issued before shipment, recording that the consignment was inspected and meets the stated requirement. For metal scrap into India it confirms no arms or explosives and background radiation, from a DGFT-recognised agency.
Shipping & ports
- Demurrage — The charge a carrier or terminal levies when a container remains inside the port past its allotted free time, accruing daily per container until the box is collected.
- Demurrage Invoice — The invoice a terminal or ocean carrier issues for the days a container remained inside the port beyond its free time, stating the container and bill of lading references, the free-time period, the daily rate applied and the number of days charged.
- Detention — The daily charge a carrier levies for keeping its container outside the terminal beyond the agreed free period, running from gate-out until the empty is returned to the depot the carrier nominates.
- Free time — The grace period allowed before demurrage or detention begins to accrue, measured in calendar days from discharge and set by the carrier's tariff or by the importer's service contract.
- Gate-out — The release of a laden import container through the terminal gate, recorded on the equipment interchange receipt. It ends the container's occupation of terminal space, stopping demurrage, and begins the importer's use of the carrier's box, starting detention.
- Inland Container Depot — An inland facility with customs jurisdiction where import and export containers are received, stuffed, destuffed and customs-cleared, functioning as a port of clearance without being on the coast.
- Last Free Day — The last day of an allowed free time period, after which demurrage or detention begins to accrue on a container. It is derived from an event such as discharge from the vessel or gate-out, plus the number of free days allowed by the applicable tariff or service contract.
- Laytime — The period of time agreed between the parties to a voyage charter during which the shipowner will make and keep the vessel available for loading or discharging without payment additional to the freight.
- Terminal storage charge — The charge a marine terminal operator levies for an import container occupying terminal ground beyond its free dwell time, set out in the terminal's published scale of rates and identical for every importer at that terminal, as distinct from the carrier's demurrage.
- Vessel Demurrage — An agreed amount payable to the shipowner in respect of delay to the vessel once the laytime has expired, for which the owner is not responsible; a voyage-charter charge running from charterer to owner, distinct from container demurrage.
Customs
- Bill of Entry — The customs declaration an importer files to clear imported goods in India, filed electronically on ICEGATE, normally by the CHA, and required before the goods can be assessed, duty paid and the cargo released.
- Clearing Agent — The party that prepares and submits a customs declaration in Dubai on an importer's behalf. Dubai Customs licenses the role as a customs broker under Customs Policy No. 17 of 2008, and declarations are submitted through the Mirsal 2 system.
- Customs House Agent — A licensed intermediary authorised to transact customs business on an importer's or exporter's behalf: filing the goods declaration, presenting supporting documents, arranging examination and clearing the consignment out of the port.
- Declaring Agent — An entity registered with Singapore Customs under a Declaring Agent Account, permitted to lodge customs permit declarations through TradeNet on its own behalf or for a trader. The declarations are filed by registered Declarants who have passed the Customs Competency Test for Declarants.
- Detention Certificate — A certificate issued by Customs recording the period for which imported goods were seized, detained or held by the department, used to obtain waiver of the custodian's rent and demurrage for that period under regulation 6(1)(l) of the Handling of Cargo in Customs Areas Regulations, 2009.
- Entry Summary — The documentation or data filed with US Customs and Border Protection that enables it to assess duties, collect statistics on imported merchandise and determine whether other legal requirements are met. Normally CBP Form 7501, submitted through ACE within 10 working days of entry.
- HS code — A product number from the Harmonized System, the World Customs Organization's international classification. Six digits are common to every member country; national tariffs extend them to eight or ten digits for duty rates and controls.
Payment & fraud
- Letter of Credit — A bank's written undertaking to pay a seller a stated amount against a presentation of documents that complies with the terms of the credit, governed in most trade by ICC UCP 600.
- Payment diversion fraud — A business email compromise scam in which an attacker impersonates a trusted counterparty and redirects a legitimate payment to an account they control, usually by announcing a change of bank details mid-deal.
Finance
- Landed cost — The total cost of a consignment delivered into the buyer's warehouse, combining the goods value with duty, freight, port and terminal charges, agent fees, inland transport, insurance, bank charges, inspection and any demurrage or detention.
Incoterms
- Incoterms — The ICC's eleven International Commercial Terms, which allocate delivery point, risk transfer, cost allocation, clearance duties and insurance obligations between a seller and a buyer in a sale of goods.