Loading bulk grain in the US

摘要

The International Grain Regulations state in part that all vessels loading grain in bulk are required to possess certified (approved) grain stability booklets. The vast majority of these booklets provide two differing capacities for a single compartment; the 'regular', full grain capacity, and the reduced, 'ends untrimmed' capacity. Which one is chosen will significantly affect the desired cargo distribution plan. This could well be an adverse effect, unless the stowage factor used in calculating the plan is appropriate. This article is intended to provide clarification of the NCB's view on the practice of using the full capacities, instead of the ends untrimmed ones, when planning the stowage and filling out the required NCB grain stability calculation form (which can be downloaded at < www.natcargo.org >).