Quality & compliance
Verification written into the contract, not offered as reassurance.
- Inspection
- Independent, at load port
- Sampling
- Method agreed at order
- Document types
- 13 covered
- Screening
- Before an offer is issued
Specification
A grade is not a specification.
“Urea 46%” is a description. A specification names the parameter, the test method and the tolerance in the same sentence — nitrogen minimum 46.0% by weight, biuret maximum 1.0%, moisture maximum 0.5%, granulometry stated as a percentage passing a stated sieve.
The reason is practical rather than pedantic. Two laboratories testing an identical sample by two different methods can return results that differ by more than the tolerance under discussion. If the contract does not name the method, the parties have not actually agreed on the quality — they have agreed on a number and deferred the argument.
The same discipline applies across the book. Milling wheat is protein on a stated moisture basis, test weight, falling number and foreign matter. Reinforcing bar is the grade and the standard together, because yield strength alone tells a fabricator nothing about elongation or bend performance. Caustic soda is the assay with iron and chloride limits and the physical form.
Where a buyer arrives with a product name rather than a requirement, we work backwards to the parameter that actually governs performance in their application. Occasionally the honest conclusion is that a cheaper grade will do the job.
The four clauses
- 01What is measured — parameter and test method.
- 02Who measures it — the appointed surveyor, or a name from an agreed shortlist.
- 03Where it becomes binding — load port, discharge port, or split between quality and quantity.
- 04What happens if it fails — rejection, an allowance against a stated scale, or replacement.
Inspection & sampling
An independent surveyor turns an argument into a document.
Appointment, scope and cost split are settled in writing at the point of order — because after loading, the party with the certificate has the stronger case regardless of the facts.
Appointment
Inspection arranged at load port by an agreed independent firm — SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek or a buyer-nominated surveyor. The name goes in the contract, not in an email.
Scope
Sampling method, number and location of samples, the analyses performed, and whether the resulting certificate is final and binding on both parties or indicative only.
Counter-samples
Sealed counter-samples retained where the trade warrants it, with the retention period and the window for demanding a re-test stated in advance.
Transit tolerance
Bulk cargoes change in transit: moisture migrates and handling generates fines. Where that risk is real we write a tolerance and a franchise rather than argue about the point of determination later.
Quantity
Draft survey or weighbridge certification for bulk parcels, with the customary split of quality at load port and quantity at discharge stated explicitly rather than assumed.
Remedy
An agreed price allowance scale for out-of-tolerance results is worth more than a right of rejection nobody intends to exercise on a cargo already at the discharge port.
Documentation
The document set is part of the goods
A clean cargo with a defective presentation is a rejected presentation. Document requirements are read against the credit at issuance, while amendments are still cheap.
| Document | Applies to |
|---|---|
| Commercial invoice & packing list | All divisions |
| Bill of lading or air waybill | All divisions |
| Certificate of origin | All divisions |
| Certificate of analysis | Fertilizers · Chemicals · Grains |
| Pre-shipment inspection report | All divisions, on agreement |
| Weight & quantity certificate | Bulk cargoes |
| Phytosanitary certificate | Grains, cereals & legumes |
| Fumigation certificate | Grains, cereals & legumes |
| Safety data sheet (SDS) | Industrial chemicals · Fertilizers |
| Dangerous goods declaration | Classified chemicals |
| Mill test certificate, EN 10204 3.1 | Steel products |
| Part number & serial verification | Machinery spare parts |
| Legalisation / chamber attestation | Where the importing country requires it |
Dangerous goods & HSE
Classified correctly, declared honestly, packed to the code
Several lines in the chemicals and fertilizer divisions are regulated for transport. Getting the classification wrong is not a paperwork problem — it is a safety problem that becomes a liability problem.
- Dangerous goods classified with the correct UN number, class and packing group, and declared on the transport document.
- Packing, marking and labelling to the applicable code for the mode — IMDG for sea, ADR for road, IATA where air freight is used.
- Safety data sheets issued in the required format and language, and supplied before the goods move rather than with the invoice.
- Segregation and stowage requirements passed to the carrier, including incompatibilities within a mixed consolidation.
- Where a buyer intends to move regulated goods outside the applicable code, the enquiry is declined.
Counterparty screening
Screening happens before the offer
Checking a counterparty after taking an order is not compliance, it is hope. Identification and screening are completed before we quote.
- Identification and verification of the contracting entity, its ownership and its authorised signatories.
- Screening of counterparties, vessels, banks and destinations against applicable sanctions and restricted-party regimes.
- Confirmation of end use where the goods have a dual-use or regulated character.
- Import permit and registration requirements confirmed with the destination market rather than assumed from a previous shipment.
- Declining any trade that would require goods, origin or end use to be described inaccurately on a document.
A note on certification
What is certified is the shipment
Trading company websites often display management-system certification marks in a way that implies the goods have been certified. They have not. A quality management certificate describes how a company documents its own processes; it says nothing about the cargo in a particular hold.
What matters to a buyer is shipment-level evidence: an independent analysis of the material actually loaded, issued by a surveyor both parties named in advance, against a specification both parties agreed in writing. That is what we arrange, and it is what we are prepared to be held to.
If your procurement policy requires specific certification from a supplier or from an origin, tell us at the enquiry stage. We will confirm what can be provided for the particular goods and origin, in writing, before anyone commits.
Before you commit
Send the specification and your inspection requirements together.
We will confirm the test methods, the surveyor and the document set in writing — before a price is discussed.
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