Among the basic information required are the equipment location, standardisation certificate and business registration certificate.

The rule to verify gross mass of a packed container took effect on July 1, and is one of the requirements introduced after amendments were made to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) by International Maritime Organisation (IMO) members.

“This information must be provided to the master or the master’s representative sufficiently in advance of loading for proper stowage and safe carriage of the cargo. Any packed container received at the port without the verified gross mass shall not be loaded on to a ship,” KMA’s acting director general Comas Cherop said in a statement.

The SOLAS amendments provide that there are two methods shippers may use to determine the container weight once the container packing process has taken place.

This requirement is applying globally, and IMO directed that shippers, freight forwarders, vessel operators, and terminal operators must establish policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of this regulatory change.

Under the SOLAS amendments, there are two accepted methods for weighing.

Method one requires weighing the container after it has been packed. The second one requires weighing all the cargo and contents of the container and adding those weights to the container’s tare weight as indicated on the door of the container.

“Weighing of all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other securing materials to be packed in the container and adding the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses to determine the gross mass of packed container using certified equipment and method approved by KMA,” said Mr Cherop.

Estimating weight is not permitted. The shipper or by arrangement of the shipper, a third party has a responsibility to weigh the packed container or to weigh its contents.

Under either method, the weighing equipment used must meet national certification and standardisation requirements.

Further, the party packing the container cannot use the weight somebody else has provided, except in one specific set of defined circumstances.

Kenya Economic Survey 2016, indicates that the number of vessels that docket at the Port of Mombasa decreased by 7.5 per cent from 1,832 in 2014 to 1,694 in 2015.

However, total throughput handled at the port recorded 26,732 tonnes of cargo in 2015 against 24,875 tonnes handled in 2014, reflecting a growth of 7.5 per cent.

The Port handled 6000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) capacity vessel, the biggest to ever dock there.