KARACHI: Chief Collector Appraisement South has issued guidelines to streamline and facilitate determination of secondary quality iron and steel products (coils/sheets).

Iron and steel products (coils/sheets) having one or more of the following features will be treated as secondary quality: not mill packed; if coils are mill packed then without sea worthy envelop/collar packing, (not applicable for hot rolled steel coils); hot rolled steel coils not strip packed; iron and steel sheets not mill packed in strip and pallets. Tolerance for shabbiness/damage to packing due to handling issues will not be more than 15 percent of the consignment in terms of number of coils.

Products would be considered secondary quality if not accompanies with mill test certificate (MTC) issued by manufacturer; if accompanied, MTC does not confirm heat number, complete chemical composition, mechanical properties, international standard or grade specification of the goods, date of production of the goods and color of the coil/sheets.

Goods will be considered secondary quality if consignment comprising of assorted coils/sheets having more than three sizes/dimensions; weight difference owing to length variation in the coils/sheets having same size/dimension should be within the range of 10 percemnt.

Goods will be considered secondary quality if one or more of the characteristics of the imported product mentioned on the MTC/laber differ in LC, contract, invoice and packing list.

Any dispute regarding categorization of the consignment a prime or secondary arising out of the factors other than mentioned above will be decided by the collector.

In case such a dispute lingers on for a period entailing demurrages, the consignment may be released provisionally on the request of importer after having all the requisite details captured in the documents and/or photographs or as deemed appropriate by the collector.