How Manifest Journals Transforms US Customs’ Import Data
We reveal the secrets behind the US Customs’ Import Data.
We introduce our name cracking technology.
We give the reasons why Manifest Journals is the choice of savvy users of the US Customs’ Import Data.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How We Apply a Country of Origin to each Bill of Lading

The raw US Customs’ Import Data doesn’t state a country of origin for any bill of lading.

On 99.9% of bills of ladings in the raw data, you’ll find a valid foreign port of lading.

On 27% of bills of lading, the actual country of origin doesn’t match the country where the port of lading is located.

The Difference between the Foreign Port of Lading and Country of Origin

When shipping lines and freight forwarders enter the foreign port of lading into the Automated Manifest System (AMS), the AMS requires that they enter the last foreign port that the vessel touches prior to making its voyage to the US.

Usually if a shipping line uses feeder vessels to deliver cargo to a mother vessel, the port of lading won’t match the country of origin.

For instance, most cargo originating in Bangladesh is loaded on feeder vessels and delivered to mother vessels.

The mother vessels sail to the United States out of Sri Lanka, India or Singapore.

The country of origin will also be different from the foreign port of lading if the vessel calls on another foreign port before calling on the US port of unlading.
In the raw US Customs’ Import Data, you’ll see cargo originating in Germany that has Freeport, Bahamas as the foreign port of lading.

This happens because of the shipping lines’ sailing schedules. In the "Germany-Freeport" case, the vessel sailed from Germany and called on Freeport to load or unload cargo.

Because the vessel called on Freeport before a US port of unlading, the AMS requires that the shipping line or freight forwarder enter Freeport as the foreign port of lading.

China – An Example of a Country of Origin vs. Foreign Port of Lading

It won’t surprise you that in 2009 (as of October 12th), we have applied -China- as a country of origin for 34% of bills of lading.

This will surprise you: 14% of Chinese bills of lading don’t show a Chinese port as the port of lading.
 
Country of Foreign Port of Lading Number of Bills % of Total Chinese Bills
China 2,077,349 85.04%
South Korea 126,522 5.18%
Hong Kong 125,580 5.14%
Taiwan 33,894 1.39%
Panama 18,658 0.76%
Japan 10,738 0.44%
Jamaica 9,841 0.40%
Bahamas 6,808 0.28%
Singapore 5,078 0.21%
Spain 3,188 0.13%
Colombia 2,286 0.09%
Bermuda 1,100 0.05%
30 Other Countries 1,663 0.07%
     
Total % "Not China" 14.14%
 

Note: For most statistical summaries, Hong Kong is treated separately from Mainland China.

If we exclude Hong Kong from the “Not-China” bills, this would bring the percentage of “Not-China” bills down to 9%.

We do want to note that many bills of lading with Hong Kong listed as the foreign port of lading have countries of origin that aren’t China.

In 2009 (as of October 12th), 604,267 bills of lading show Hong Kong as the foreign port of lading. 119,983 of those Hong Kong bills of lading had countries of origin that were not China.
How We Fix the Four Big Problems in the Raw Data from US Customs
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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