BBC News has been tracking a container, NYKU8210506, as it travels around the world to illustrate global trade. I previously blogged on the story about a month ago,
"The Box": The BBC's featured container is in Zepol's TradeIQ, and noticed the container had entered the United States a couple of times in the last two years. The container recently departed from Shanghai and arrived in Los Angeles on 12/3/2008. To read the story from the BBC, take a look at their feature
article.
When the container arrived, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released the AMS data that was submitted 24 hours before the shipment left Shanghai. The companies involved with the shipment input data showing what products would be entering the United States and submitted the information to U.S. Customs. U.S. Customs then took this data and released it under the Freedom of Information Act. Zepol made the data searchable and reportable for our customers, who then can use it to analyze their competitors, suppliers, and markets.
For the shipment, “The Box’s” Bill of Lading detailed the following product descriptions for 1,254 cartons:
Many first time users of U.S. Customs trade data are surprised by the level of detail that is shown for every shipment entering the United States. Above is only a piece of the Bill of Lading that Zepol provides to our customers, please take a look at this
Bill of Lading Sample to see the full detail of the data.