Transshipment

Transshipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to yet another destination.

One possible reason is to change the means of transport during the journey (for example from ship transport to road transport), known as transloading. Another reason is to combine small shipments into a large shipment (consolidation), dividing the large shipment at the other end (deconsolidation). Transshipment usually takes place in transport hubs. Much international transshipment also takes place in designated customs areas, thus avoiding the need for customs checks or duties, otherwise a major hindrance for efficient transport.

Note that transshipment is generally considered as a legal term. An item handled (from the shipper's point of view) as a single movement is not generally considered transshipped even if it may in reality change from one transport to another at several points. Previously, it was often not distinguished from transloading, since each leg of such a trip was typically handled by a different shipper.

Transshipment is normally fully legitimate and an everyday part of the world's trade. However, it can also be a method used to disguise intent, as is the case with illegal logging, smuggling or grey market goods.

Transshipment at container ports or terminals

Scheme describing the possible container flows at a container port/terminal

The transhipment of containers at a container port or terminal can be defined as the number (or proportion) of containers, possibly expressed in TEU, of the total container flow that is handled at the port or terminal and, after temporary storage in the stack, transferred to another ship to reach their destinations. The exact definition of transhipment may differ between ports, mostly depending on the inclusion of inland water transport (barges operating on canals and rivers to the hinterland). The definition of transhipment may:

• include only seaborne transfers (a change to another international deep-sea container ship)
• include both seaborne and inland waterway ship transfers (sometimes indicated as water-to-water transhipment). Most coastal container ports in China have a large proportion of riverside 'transhipment' to the hinterland.

In both cases, a single, unique, transhipped container is counted twice in the port performance, since it is handled twice by the waterside cranes (separate unloading from arriving ship A, waiting in the stack, and loading onto departing ship B).

Transshipment at a break-of-gauge

At a break-of-gauge cargo is transloaded from boxcars or covered goods wagons on one track, to wagons on another track of a different rail gauge, or containers are transloaded from flatcars on one track to flatcars on another track of a different gauge. Variable gauge axles can eliminate this inconvenience.

See also

• Cross-docking
• Customs area
• Entrepôt
• Free port
• List of world's busiest transshipment ports
• Milk run
• Transshipment problem

References

• What Is Transshipment? from Informed Trade website
• Rojas, E.; MCS Observers on board at-sea Transshipment Vessels. In: APO Mail Buoy Vol. 10 (3). pp. 8-9. 2007.