The DG Document Stack for Charcoal: DGD, Weathering, MSDS, Survey, COO
By Mohamad Sinno, Charcoal Expert · Last updated
A compliant charcoal shipment from Indonesia carries a dangerous goods declaration, a weathering certificate, an MSDS, a vanning survey report and a certificate of origin, on top of the ordinary commercial set — five DG-side documents issued by four different parties.
The stack at a glance
Charcoal ships as UN 1361, proper shipping name CARBON, Class 4.2, and IMDG Amendment 42-24 has been mandatory worldwide since 1 January 2026 (Hapag-Lloyd, December 2025). Across the set, one string has to match: the UN number, class and packing group must read the same on the dangerous goods declaration, on the bill of lading and in the safety data sheet. The document layer exists because of a fire record — at least 68 fire incidents on board ships between January 2015 and December 2022, most of them from consignments that had been misdeclared (CINS, September 2024). The stack is one stage of a longer sequence; shipping charcoal by sea as dangerous goods runs from classification through weathering and booking to stuffing and survey.
Document, issuer, when it is required, and what it proves
Four different parties stand behind this set: the factory issues the weathering certificate and the MSDS, the shipper signs the dangerous goods declaration, an independent surveyor issues the vanning report, and the certificate of origin is issued through Indonesia's government e-SKA system. The timing column below follows one carrier's staged checklist (Maersk, effective 1 October 2025) — a carrier practice, not a Code rule.
| Document | Issued by | Required when | What it proves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dangerous goods declaration (DGD) | Shipper (consignor) | Preliminary before container release; final before gate-in | The consignment is correctly classified, packed and marked — what the charcoal dangerous goods declaration must state |
| Weathering certificate | The producing factory | Before gate-in | The 14-day weathering and ≤40 °C packing — how the producer's weathering certificate is issued |
| MSDS / SDS | The producing factory | Before container release and gate-in | The hazard and the Section 14 transport data — the MSDS for coconut charcoal and the sections that matter |
| Vanning survey report | Independent marine surveyor | At stuffing, before gate-in | The container was packed as declared and the weathering report is credible |
| Certificate of origin (Form B) | Indonesia's e-SKA system | Before or at export clearance | The goods originate in Indonesia; used for all destinations (DJBC) |
What this document set does not do
None of these documents changes the cargo's status: charcoal remains dangerous goods with a complete pack in hand, because the test-based exemption route was removed from the Code — Special Provisions 925 and 223 are gone and SP 978 replaces them (World Shipping Council Quick Reference Guide, 2025).
- A complete pack does not by itself secure a booking — Maersk accepts charcoal bookings only from a pre-audited shipper (effective 1 October 2025), a carrier condition that sits with the carrier layer, not this one.
- A certificate of origin is a trade document, not a quality or safety certificate.
The annotated shipment pack
The entries below are transcribed from one real Coco Reina shipment's own documents — the classification lines as they actually print, redacted of commercial quantities and annotated. They are transcriptions, not scanned pages.
The declaration's classification entries, line by line
On a real charcoal declaration the classification prints as proper shipping name CARBON, Class 4.2, UN 1361, Packing Group III, against 4G fibreboard packaging. The system print, with the box count and weight removed:
Three things worth reading in that block. The proper shipping name prints doubled — "CARBON CARBON" — a system-template artefact, not two substances; the entry is simply CARBON, animal or vegetable origin. The label matches the class, 4.2. And Packing Group III here rests on the SP 978 no-test default — the special provision assigns at least PG III without a classification test, so no self-heating test report is held. A carrier checks that final declaration carries the correct UN packing code (Maersk, effective 1 October 2025); ours is the 4G fibreboard code above.
The same classification on the bill of lading
The bill of lading carries the same classification as the declaration, written as a single cargo-description line naming UN 1361, the proper shipping name, the class and the packing group. The description line below, as it appears on the bill of lading:
UN 1361, CARBON, ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE ORIGIN (coconut shell charcoal), Class 4.2, PG III
Two documents, two forms — a fielded system print on the declaration, one prose line on the B/L — carrying identical classification content. That identity is the point, and where it breaks is what stops containers.
Where the three date and temperature entries come from
The production date, packing date and packing-day temperature are recorded in the factory's production and batch log first, then copied onto the declaration per shipment — a records obligation before it is a form-filling one. The requirement itself is set by Special Provision 978 of chapter 3.3, which adds exactly those three entries to the transport document for UN 1361 (CINS, September 2024), and is enforced at booking (Hapag-Lloyd, December 2025). This page names the three; the field-by-field anatomy sits with the DGD-fields page linked above.
The mismatches that stop a container
The failure that stops containers is rarely a missing document — it is two documents in the same pack that disagree about the classification, the issuing entity, or the dates. Three to check before booking:
- Classification that disagrees between the declaration and the SDS. An inspector is directed to check whether the classification is consistent with the material as described in the Safety Data Sheet (IMO MSC.1/Circ.1649, 20 May 2022) — so the UN number, class and packing group on the DGD and in SDS Section 14 must read the same.
- An SDS issued by a different entity than the producer. The MSDS must come from the same entity as the manufacturer of the charcoal (Maersk, effective 1 October 2025); a third-party or trader-issued sheet is a red flag.
- A weathering certificate that cannot reconcile with the DGD. The DGD's two dates and packing-day temperature are the same entries the weathering certificate carries, so a date or temperature that differs between the two is a visible contradiction.
The cost of getting it wrong is not abstract: inaccurate documentation risks rejection, fines and delays (World Shipping Council Quick Reference Guide, 2025).
Who is legally responsible for what
The shipper signs the dangerous goods declaration and carries its liability, even when a freight forwarder fills the form in. For an FCL ocean export from Indonesia, the transport document prepared by the shipper carries a signed, dated declaration that the consignment is correctly described, classified, packaged, marked and labelled — the certification requirement at IMDG 5.4.1.6, per the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency and IMO MSC.1/Circ.1649 (20 May 2022). A forwarder may prepare the paperwork; the declaration remains the consignor's.
- The factory issues the weathering certificate, the MSDS and the certificate of origin, and supplies the underlying records.
- The shipper signs the dangerous goods declaration and owns its accuracy.
- The carrier checks the pack at release and gate-in and books the DG cargo.
Where a document touches duty treatment or customs classification, confirm the specifics for your own shipment with a licensed customs broker in the destination country — the responsibility split above is documentary, not customs advice.
The independent surveyor's role
A vanning survey is carried out by an independent party and is not the same thing as a state container inspection (CINS, September 2024). Its documentary job is to confirm, at the point of stuffing, that the container was packed as declared and that the weathering report is available and credible — the one place a third party reads the documents against the cargo. what a vanning survey covers and which photos to keep sets out the surveyor report and the container photos.
What the factory supplies as standard, and what only on request
The declaration, weathering certificate, MSDS and certificate of origin travel with every shipment; the weathering record — the underlying dated yard log behind the certificate — and the vanning survey report are supplied on request, so a buyer who does not ask does not receive them. Our full per-shipment set is the export declaration (PEB), commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin through e-SKA (Form B, or a preferential form where the buyer claims one), the MSDS classifying the product as UN 1361 Class 4.2 PG III, the dangerous goods declaration with UN-spec packaging documentation, the SP 978 weathering and packing-temperature statement, and a per-batch certificate of analysis — plus ISPM-15 heat-treated pallet marking where wood pallets are used. For a redacted specimen pack, WhatsApp +628213924038.
Document Q&A
Which documents does the factory issue automatically, and which only on request?
The weathering record and the vanning survey report are the two a buyer has to ask for — the declaration and the rest of the pack travel with the shipment. Request both in writing at order stage rather than waiting until booking, when a gap costs time.
Does the certificate of origin have to mention the dangerous-goods classification?
No — the certificate of origin evidences where the goods were made and carries no hazard classification; the DG layer and the trade layer answer different questions about the same container. which certificate of origin your shipment needs and who issues it covers the form types and the issuing route.
Is a self-heating test report part of the document set?
No — the packing group is assigned without testing under Special Provision 978's default, so no self-heating test report forms part of this pack, and none is held. how charcoal came to be classified UN 1361 Class 4.2 explains why a passed test stopped mattering.
What does the carrier check, and at which point?
Carriers check in two passes: a preliminary declaration and the safety data sheet before the empty container is released, then the final declaration with the correct packing code, the weathering certificate, the vanning certificate and the MSDS before the loaded box is accepted at the terminal (Maersk, effective 1 October 2025; as of July 2026). loading a charcoal container and what the freight costs covers the stuffing and cost layers.
This page is general information on charcoal export documentation, not legal, customs or dangerous-goods advice. Confirm current IMDG, carrier and destination-customs requirements with your carrier or a licensed dangerous-goods or customs specialist before shipping.