Updated
Most containers on a ship belong to the shipping line or are leased by it. The shipper borrows the box, fills it, and the consignee returns it empty after unpacking. That is a carrier-owned container, or COC. A shipper-owned container, or SOC, turns this round: you own the container, you load your cargo into it, and at destination the box stays with your consignee.
Searches such as "shipping container to Nigeria from UK", "shipping container from Germany to Ghana" or "ship my own container" are very often this question in another form. The buyer wants goods and a container at the destination, and SOC is how both travel on one booking. This guide explains what that involves, what the carrier requires of the box, and where the container supplier's part ends.
SOC and COC side by side
- Who owns the box — COC: the carrier or its lessor. SOC: you, or the party you bought it for.
- After unpacking — COC: returned empty to the carrier within free time. SOC: kept, sold or reused by the consignee.
- Detention — COC: charged by the carrier when its box stays outside the terminal beyond free time. SOC: there is no carrier box to return.
- Time on the terminal — both: occupying the terminal beyond the free period is charged, whoever owns the box.
- Condition and approval — COC: the carrier's responsibility. SOC: yours, including a cargo-worthy structure, a valid CSC plate and correct marking.
- Booking — SOC status is declared when the freight is quoted and booked, not discovered at the gate.
Why buyers ship SOC
The case is strongest on one-way routes where the container is wanted at the destination anyway. A buyer who needs both a consignment of goods and a container for storage, a shop or a workshop gets both in one movement, and the box goes straight into use after unpacking. There is no empty container to return and no detention running on carrier equipment while the goods are cleared and trucked inland.
It also suits cargo that needs longer to unpack than carrier free time allows, and project shipments where the containers become site stores on arrival. It suits less well when you do not want the container at the other end: an SOC you no longer need is yours to sell locally or ship back.
What the carrier requires of the box
Carriers accept SOC at their discretion and on their own conditions, which differ between lines and services. The published requirements share a core. Hapag-Lloyd's SOC procedure, for example, asks for a valid CSC plate and certificate, an allowable stacking weight of at least 192,000 kg, a transverse racking test value of at least 15,000 kg, standard ISO dimensions and an ISO 6346 container number, and requires units that fall short to be announced before booking. The Container Owners Association's guidelines for cargo-worthy shipper-owned containers point to the same things: an acceptable structural condition, a valid CSC plate with a next examination date or ACEP reference, and compliance with the ISO standards for dimensions, testing and marking.
- CSC approval in date — see the CSC plate guide. The plate can stay on the container when it is sold, and the new owner becomes responsible for maintaining it and having it examined under the convention.
- Cargo-worthy condition — see cargo worthy containers. Wind and watertight is a storage description, not a basis for an SOC booking.
- Marking — a valid ISO 6346 number. BIC's terms for registered owner codes provide that when individual containers change hands they are re-marked with the buyer's code. Ask your forwarder what the carrier on your route will accept before the unit leaves the depot.
- Anything non-standard declared up front — sizes other than 20ft and 40ft, modified containers, tanks and operating reefers have to be declared at booking. A modified container needs its CSC approval reassessed before it can be offered as freight equipment.
Who does what
An SOC shipment involves more parties than a container purchase, and most problems start with someone assuming another party had a task. The usual split:
- We supply the container — the unit, its grade and plate details, and delivery to your premises, a packing warehouse or the loading terminal. We quote delivered prices on request.
- Your forwarder or the carrier books the freight — confirms that SOC is accepted on the service, makes the booking, issues the transport documents and handles export formalities.
- You, as shipper, are responsible for the cargo — packing and securing it, declaring it correctly, and providing the verified gross mass of the packed container under SOLAS before it is loaded.
- Your consignee and their clearing agent handle the destination — clearance of the cargo and of the container, port charges and onward delivery.
If the goods are loaded at your premises, the container is first delivered there empty, which is a normal road delivery. If they are packed near the loading port, buying the box at that port saves a leg; see buying a container at the port.
Demurrage, detention and storage
Carriers use two words for time charges on their equipment. Maersk defines demurrage as the time full containers spend inside the terminal, from discharge until they are gated out, and detention as the time containers spend outside the terminal, from collection until they are returned empty. Both are charged once the free time offered by the carrier runs out.
With an SOC, detention on carrier equipment falls away, because there is no carrier box to bring back. Time inside the terminal is a different matter. The container still occupies terminal space, and how carrier and terminal charges apply to shipper-owned boxes at a given port is set by their tariffs. Read the free time and storage terms on the freight quotation rather than assuming SOC means no charges at all.
At destination: the container is goods too
A carrier-owned container enters a country temporarily and leaves again. Under the Customs Convention on Containers, 1972, containers used in international transport are temporarily admitted free of import duties and taxes, subject to re-export within three months, and each contracting party reserves the right to refuse that treatment for containers bought or leased by a person resident or established in its territory. An SOC that will stay with your consignee is, in customs terms, imported goods in its own right, normally classified under HS heading 8609, and subject to whatever duties and taxes the destination applies.
Rates, valuation and documents are set by the destination's customs authority, and your consignee's clearing agent is the reliable source for them. Tell the agent before arrival that the container is staying, and list the container on the commercial documents with its number so it can be declared. The WCO summary of the convention sets out temporary admission, and the destination pages cover quoting to specific markets, including Ghana and Nigeria.
Before you buy a container to ship SOC
With these answers settled, send a quote request naming the address, warehouse or terminal the unit should go to. The purchase-versus-shipping distinction is also set out under worldwide delivery.
- Route and loading port agreed with your forwarder
- The carrier's acceptance of SOC on that service, in writing
- The container size and type the carrier accepts, in cargo-worthy condition at minimum
- A CSC plate in date, with the next examination falling well after the voyage
- Marking the carrier will accept
- Where the container will be loaded, and therefore where it must be delivered empty
- The destination treatment of the container confirmed with the clearing agent