Export packing out of Korea: crating, ISPM 15, and moisture

The container arrives and the machine inside has surface rust. The crate is intact, the packing material is dry, the equipment is not. Nothing in the order said how it should be packed, so the manufacturer packed it the way they pack for everyone else — which is adequate for a two-week trip and not for a six-week one.

A container is a humidity cycle, not a box

A shipment from Korea to Northern Europe is four to six weeks at sea. During that time the container passes through repeated temperature cycles, amplified by sun on the roof, and every cycle moves moisture around inside it.

Warm air holds moisture; when it cools, that moisture condenses on the coldest surface available. That is usually the container ceiling, from where it drips onto the cargo — which is why the effect is called container rain.

The moisture usually comes from inside the container, not outside. Most of it is in the wood of the crates and pallets: freshly sawn timber carries a substantial water content and releases it over weeks.

Stowage adds to it, and you do not control it. A container carried on deck experiences far wider temperature swings than one below, so the packing has to suit the unfavourable case rather than the average. Standing time extends the exposure in the same way: days waiting in port or for clearance are days inside the same humidity cycle, and they are not in anyone's transit estimate.

What the order does not say

Compare orders that produced transit damage with orders that did not, and the difference is in the same handful of lines.

The timber moisture line is written almost never and causes a disproportionate share of the damage. Crates built from wet wood are themselves the source of the condensation they were meant to prevent.

Desiccant is a calculation

Desiccant is often added symbolically — a few sachets so that something is in the crate. The quantity actually required follows from the enclosed volume, the transit duration, how well the barrier seals, and the moisture already inside.

Without a sealed barrier, any quantity is too small, because fresh humid air keeps arriving. The order of operations is therefore: a sealed enclosure first, desiccant inside it second.

A barrier punctured during packing does not function. Sharp edges, lifting eyes and protruding bolts are the usual culprits, and a line requiring penetrations to be sealed is worth including.

Protection on machined surfaces

Machined faces, shaft ends, sealing surfaces and pipe bores are where corrosion shows first. There are several treatments, and each has a consequence at commissioning.

A protective oil must be removed before assembly — that costs time and a solvent that has to be permitted at the receiving site. A long-term film can stay, but it has to be compatible with the process medium. For food contact or oxygen service, many products are excluded outright.

So the order should state not only that protection is required but whether it has to be removed and with what. Without that, the machine stands on site while someone establishes whether it can be flushed.

ISPM 15 is not a quality statement

Wood packaging in international trade requires treatment and a corresponding mark. That is a plant health requirement and says nothing about whether the crate suits your cargo.

The treatment kills organisms. It does not dry the timber to a defined value and does not make the crate stronger. A correctly stamped crate can be wet and undersized.

Practically: the mark is a condition of entry, not a substitute for a packing specification. Its absence, however, holds the shipment at the border — which is why it belongs in the order anyway.

Securing inside the crate is worth its own line, because it decides whether you get corrosion or breakage. Equipment that moves inside its crate damages itself and the barrier around it. Bolting heavy assemblies to the crate base is standard practice where it is asked for; vibration isolation for sensitive sub-assemblies is available on the same terms. Neither happens by default.

Photographs before the crate closes

If damage occurs, the question is when it happened. Without evidence of condition at loading, that becomes one assertion against another.

Ask for images in three stages: the goods before packing; the goods in the open crate with securing and desiccant visible; and the closed consignment with its markings. That is a few minutes of work in the packing shop and the only defensible record you will have.

A shock indicator on large items is worth adding. It does not establish who caused an impact, but it moves the conversation from supposition to fact — and it demonstrably changes how packages are handled.

Handling equipment at the receiving end is worth confirming too. A crate sized for a forklift that the site does not have becomes a crane job, and a crane is booked days ahead. Stating the weight and the lifting arrangement in the order lets the receiving plant organise that before the container arrives rather than after.

Whoever opens the crate matters

A share of damage happens at unpacking. Crates are opened with a forklift, securing straps are cut and the load shifts, or the equipment is slung from the wrong point.

What prevents this is what is printed on the outside: lifting points, centre of gravity, opening side and weight, in a language read at destination and as a symbol.

It also matters that the crate can be opened without destroying it, if the goods will be stored or moved onward. A glued crate cannot be closed again, and equipment that has to wait for a site to be ready then sits unprotected.

Insurance interacts with all of this. A cargo policy generally responds to damage from an external cause, and condensation from moisture packed inside the crate is not obviously that. Where a claim turns on whether the packing was adequate, the specification in your order and the photographs taken before closing are what the discussion is conducted from.

Two lines that cover most of it

A full packing standard is its own document. For routine purchasing, two lines in the general terms achieve more than an annex nobody opens.

The first: seaworthy packing for a minimum of eight weeks, with a sealed barrier, calculated desiccant, and timber moisture below a stated value. The second: photographic documentation before closing, and marking of weight, centre of gravity and lifting points.

Both are routine for an experienced exporter and cost little. What they prevent is the argument afterwards about what would have been customary.

The damage that appears months later

Not all of it is visible at unpacking. The version that surfaces later is more expensive because it is harder to attribute.

Equipment that sat in a humid container for weeks can arrive looking clean and carry corrosion in places nobody inspects — inside bores, under fitted components, in bearing housings, on unpainted internal surfaces. It runs at commissioning and fails months afterwards, at which point the cause is indistinguishable from a manufacturing defect or from operating conditions.

That is also why storage after arrival belongs in the same thinking. Equipment that will wait weeks for a foundation should stay in its transport protection, in a covered space, with the barrier intact — not unpacked on arrival for inspection and left open. Unpacking early to check for damage is the response that most often produces it. If you are preparing an order, we can look at which of these lines matter for your goods — talk to us about sourcing. What travels with the same shipment is covered under the document set.