Urgently find owners of more than 3000 containers of imported scrap

Imported scrap shipments that do not meet the standards of quality are seized by Customs Department of HCMC. Photo: T.H.

Find the owners of over 3000 containers

Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch in cooperation with Sai Gon New Port Corporation has informed to find owners of more than 3,000 containers left at Cat Lai Port, mainly scrap, over the last week.

Ms. Pham Thi Leo, Deputy Director of Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch said that as the scrap left in Cat Lai port arising is very large, the unit has actively coordinated with concerned parties to speed up the handling of this shipment backlog quantity.

Accordingly, the Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch has focused on reviewing container cargoes that have been docked more than 30 days to check with shipping carriers, then making procedures for classification of goods. So far, through verification, comparison, Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch has identified more than 3,000 containers of goods stored at Cat Lai port over 90 days without recipients.

In order to handle the number of goods left at Cat Lai port, on July 4, 2018, the Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch has announced the search of the owners of 2,514 containers. Earlier, at the end of June 2018, the Department also announced for searching the owners of 534 containers of stored goods in the inventories until March 12, 2018, at the port of Cat Lai without recipients.

All of the above containers have been docked at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 and have been overdue for more than 90 days (prescribed time limit at the import gates). According to our understanding, most of the above-mentioned goods are plastic scrap. This majority was imported in early 2018.

“There are a number of cargo containers which are locked by the functional forces at the port of Cat Lai since 2014, this time the unit has been verified and handled urgently to support the clearance of Cat Lai port”, Ms. Pham Thi Leo confirmed.

Many enterprises refuse to receive scrap

According to the Saigon port area 1 Custom Branch, after publicly announcing the above-said backlog of goods to organizations and individuals involved in carrying out procedures for receipt of goods, the time limit will be 60 days after the date of announcement. If there are no recipients, the handling committee of the Customs Department of Ho Chi Minh City will handle according to the Circular No. 203 of the Ministry of Finance.

"In fact, after posting notice of finding the owner of the shipment backlog at the port, there are almost no individuals, units to receive goods. In fact, they have abandoned their cargo at the port from months to years, and have not paid attention to it yet,” said a Saigon Port representative.

In the process of inquiring information of enterprises specializing in importing scraps at Cat Lai port, the Customs officials said that there are enterprises having bills of importing several hundred scrap containers, but they have refused to receive goods due to the wrong shipping!?

According to our investigation, there are cases, where a business refused to receive nearly 500 scrap containers; Another one refused to receive over 250 containers of scrap, many refused to receive from a dozen containers to a few dozen containers of scrap, all with the same reason that foreign counterparts shipped wrongly.

Sharing with us, deputy director general Pham Thi Leo said that the importers of scraps actually knew the legal provisions on importing scrap into Vietnam. However, many companies have been looking for ways to bring scrap to Vietnam’s ports, while not having enough conditions to import. Since the goods arrived at the port many months ago, they have not yet obtained the certificate of environmental protection eligibility in the import of discarded materials as raw materials for production, so they left the port and refused to receive the goods to avoid responsibility.