Shipping from Pakistan to Oman: Karachi to Sohar by container

Shipping from Pakistan to Oman by sea mostly starts in Karachi. This page is about the container trade on that lane, and it is for the two businesses either side of the box: the Pakistani exporter who has to get it declared and loaded, and the Omani importer who has to get it cleared and delivered. We work Karachi to Sohar from the Oman end. Sohar is our home port, the customs entry there is filed in this office, and the road leg from the terminal is ours.

Karachi to Sohar, and which Karachi

Karachi has two ports. Karachi Port sits on the city's harbour, close to the main business district. Port Qasim lies east of the city, on Phitti Creek in the Indus delta. They are Pakistan's two busiest ports, and between them they carry most of the country's external trade.

They are separate ports with separate terminals, and a booking out of Karachi names the terminal the container is delivered to, with its own cut off for gate in. Check it before the box leaves the factory. A container that arrives at the wrong terminal, or after the cut off, rolls to the next sailing.

The two services that call Karachi and Sohar

We sell slots on two named services, and both carry cargo from Karachi into Sohar. FENG HAI 66 works Sohar, then Karachi, then Mundra. DEDE KORKUT works Sohar, then Karachi, then Nhava Sheva, then Mundra. What separates them is the Indian ports, so for Pakistan cargo the two are interchangeable: tell us the cargo and when it is ready, and we book whichever sailing fits your cargo and your date. Where neither fits, we arrange it through partners and name who carries it before you book.

We are not the carrier on either service. The shipper receives the principal's bill of lading, signed by us as agent, and the principal's terms, time bar and forum govern any claim on it. We name the principal on your booking before you ask.

Cargo from India means a different export filing and different ports: shipping from India to Oman covers Mundra and Nhava Sheva.

Shipping from Pakistan to Oman starts with a Pakistani filing

Under Pakistan's customs law, goods may not be loaded for export until the exporter has filed a goods declaration with Pakistan Customs, either itself or through a customs agent licensed in Pakistan. That filing belongs to the Pakistani side of the trade and is made there. We do not file it. Our filing is the Omani entry at the other end.

The incoterm decides who has to arrange it. On FOB Karachi the export formalities are the seller's, which leaves them with the party set up to file them. On EXW they pass to the buyer, in a country the buyer does not operate in. Settle it before the contract is signed.

Some cargo also needs a certificate that can only be issued in Pakistan. Rice is one of the goods Pakistan sells to Oman, and food and anything of plant origin usually needs a phytosanitary certificate issued at origin at the time of shipment. It cannot be produced after the vessel sails. We say at the quotation stage which certificates the Omani side will ask for.

The documents have to agree

The same shipment is described three times before it reaches Sohar: in the commercial invoice, in the packing list, and in the bill of lading drafted from the shipper's instructions. At Sohar customs reads the invoice to set the value, checks the weights and packages against the carrier's manifest, and matches the entry to the consignee on the bill. So these have to line up:

• The description, specific enough to classify. "General cargo" on an invoice is not something a tariff code can be built on, and it turns into a query at Sohar.
• The weights and the package count, the same on the packing list and the bill of lading.
• The buyer on the invoice and the consignee on the bill of lading: one Omani party, whose commercial registration covers the goods.
• The seller on the invoice and the exporter on the certificate of origin, where the goods need one.

Check the draft bill of lading before it is issued. A correction afterwards costs money and days, and on a principal's bill it needs the principal's approval.

Full container or consolidated

A full container is stuffed and sealed at origin and moves as one unit, and you pay for the box whether it is full or not. Consolidated cargo shares a container with other shippers' goods, stuffed at one end and stripped at the other, which adds two handlings and the time they take. Consolidation suits a volume too small for a box, or a first order. Ask for both prices: the break even point differs by lane and by cargo. Freight forwarding covers the booking, the equipment and the quote in more detail.

At Sohar: the entry and the truck

The Oman end of the file stays in this office. The import entry is filed in house through Bayan, the Directorate General of Customs electronic single window, in the importer's name, against its commercial registration and a written authorisation for us to file. Duty follows the GCC common external tariff for the code, and VAT is assessed at import alongside it. Customs clearance sets out the filing, the queries and the release in detail.

Once customs releases the entry and the delivery order is issued, the container leaves the terminal on our own trucks or with contracted hauliers. The empty goes back to the depot the line nominated, and that is the movement that stops detention, not the release. We plan it with the delivery, so we know when it was done.

Get a rate: send the cargo, the Karachi port it leaves from, where in Oman it has to be, and when it is ready.