FENG HAI 66: our Sohar, Karachi and Mundra service

Sohar, then Karachi, then Mundra

FENG HAI 66 works Sohar, then Karachi, then Mundra. We sell slots on this service, and the booking is taken in this office, by the same people who file the customs entry and put a truck at the terminal.

We are not the carrier on it. The shipper receives the principal's bill of lading, signed by us as agent. The principal's terms, the principal's time bar and the forum named on that bill govern any claim on it. That is not a reservation about the service, it is what a slot sold by an agent is.

Mundra, and the hinterland behind it

Mundra is in Gujarat, and it serves the north and northwest Indian hinterland. If your consignee clears and takes delivery in that part of India, this is the rotation to book, and the box comes off at the port they work from.

Ask the consignee which port they clear at before you ask anyone for a rate. Two ports can both read as India on a purchase order and mean a different inland cost to the receiver. That answer settles which of our two services your booking belongs on, and asking now is cheaper than changing a discharge port after the bill of lading is issued, which is a correction with the principal's approval attached to it.

Karachi is on both services

Both services call at Karachi. For Pakistan cargo the two are interchangeable, and the honest thing to say is that we book whichever one fits your cargo and your timing. Tell us the cargo and where it has to be, and which service carries it is our problem rather than yours.

If the consignee wants Nhava Sheva

Then book the other one. DEDE KORKUT works Sohar, then Karachi, then Nhava Sheva, then Mundra, and Nhava Sheva serves Mumbai and the western hinterland. FENG HAI 66 does not call there. That rotation also reaches Mundra, as its last call, so Mundra cargo can go on either service while Nhava Sheva cargo cannot go on this one.

What a slot is, and what we owe on it

A slot is space on a named service, bought from the party that operates it and sold on to you. What we owe is the booking: space confirmed on a sailing, equipment released to you, the cut off times for documentation and for gate in, and your shipping instructions turned into a draft bill of lading to check.

What we do not owe is the carriage. The contract of carriage is with the principal named in the carrier box on the bill, and our signature underneath it is an agent's signature. That is the line that decides who a cargo claim goes against and by when. We name the principal on your booking before you ask. Liner agency sets the relationship out in full, including which of the two bills over your container is the one you are holding.

Full container or consolidated, on this lane

A full container is sealed at origin and moves as one unit, and you pay for it whether it is full or not. Consolidated cargo shares the box with other shippers, which means a stuffing at one end and a stripping at the other. Ask for both prices. The break even point between them differs by lane and by cargo.

Equipment changes the answer as much as volume does. A reefer needs a set temperature and its free time is shorter. Out of gauge cargo on a flat rack or an open top is measured, lashed and approved before it is accepted, so raise it early. Dangerous goods need the class, the UN number and a declaration before anyone can quote. Freight forwarding covers the equipment and the quote in more detail.

The documents, and the Oman end of the file

The papers that travel with the cargo are the commercial invoice and packing list, a certificate of origin where the destination asks for one, the VGM declaration giving the container's verified gross mass, and dangerous goods documentation where the commodity calls for it. The goods description, the weights, the marks and the consignee details have to match across all of them and match the bill of lading.

The Oman end of the file stays here too. The customs entry is filed in this office through Bayan, the Directorate General of Customs electronic single window, rather than passed to an outside broker: customs clearance. The road leg between the terminal and your premises is our own work, run with our trucks and with contracted hauliers: land transport. The empty return is planned with the movement rather than after it, because detention does not stop when the cargo is dealt with, it stops when the empty is back at the depot the line nominated, and that is a movement we perform and can date. Demurrage and detention sets out the three clocks and who collects on each.

Attending the ship at the berth is separate work, done for the vessel and not for the cargo: port agency.

What to send to get a rate

The commodity, the gross weight and the volume or piece count, the port your consignee wants, full container or consolidated, and roughly when the cargo is ready. If an incoterm is agreed, name it, and if the cargo has to be collected or delivered inland, give us the address rather than the city.

Call +968 9672 1075 to 1079, five lines, or message us on WhatsApp on +968 9367 4200, or write to [email protected]. The office is open Sunday to Thursday, 08:00 to 17:00, and the reply comes from the person who will run the file.