In what seems like a case of “lost in translation”, one of South Africa’s biggest exporters of paint alleges that a leading shipping line and its call centre operators in India are misreading guidelines for the declaration of supposed dangerous goods, resulting in additional costs for the shipper.
According to Sapphron Phillipson, supply chain exports manager at Kansai Plascon, “this is now the second time that the call centre agents have told our freight forwarders that we must re-declare our product according to the chemical components contained in the paint. “But we keep on telling them that we are correctly declaring our shipments, as paint, according to the guidelines and codes for International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG).” The line in question, which has yet to respond to questions send to them, apparently keeps referring Kansai back to their call centre agents. “This is in spite of us telling them that we believe their agents in India are making a mistake. They are misreading the codes and won’t listen to us.” Phillipson says if the line would intercede and pay attention to Kansai’s argument that it’s all a misunderstanding, it wouldn’t be such a problem. “But they’re absolutely insistent and we’re beginning to think it’s a bullying tactic.”
Phillipson says the line expects Kansai to declare its paint according to what’s in it. “We can’t do that though because it would be inaccurate according to the IMDG codes. We cannot declare our product according to the chemical formulations used in making the paint. The end product is still paint and we cannot reverse-engineer our product.” Phillipson adds that the delays are resulting in storage and demurrage costs. “Every day our product is not loaded for shipment costs us around $150, and that’s just in storage.” The longer-term impact on Kansai, she says, is down-the line costs, additional insurance expense and reputational damage because of delayed delivery. “The particular shipment we’re dealing with at the moment is on its way to Russia which takes 45 days on the water. Once it has arrived, it takes a further seven to ten days to have it cleared and transported to the warehouses. “That’s if we’re not delayed. Currently it’s their summer, a good time to ship, but if we wait too long we get to Russia in their winter when the harbours are frozen.” Phillipson says in one of her exchanges the agents in India insisted that because Kansai was shipping five different products they all needed different technical specifications. “I went through all the footnotes and fineprint of the regulations and nowhere is there a specification that requires a technical declaration if more than five presumably hazardous items are being shipped. “We’ve been trying to tell the line this, that we believe their call centre agents are misreading the guidelines, and have even gone so far as to say that we don’t want to go through India. But the line won’t listen to us. They never return our calls.”
