ISPM 15 Failure: Untreated Crating Held at a North American Port

The situation

ISPM 15 governs solid wood packaging material used in international trade. Any crate, pallet, skid, brace or piece of loose dunnage thicker than 6 mm must be heat treated or fumigated by an approved provider and marked with the IPPC stamp. In North America the requirement is enforced at the border, and a consignment whose wood packaging fails inspection is refused entry regardless of what that packaging contains.

The failure is rarely the main crate. It is more often a chock cut from an untreated offcut at the last minute, a mark obscured by a shipping label or a coat of paint, or a crate rebuilt after inspection using fresh unmarked timber. The finding stops the whole consignment. The container cannot move inland, free time expires, and demurrage and detention begin accruing while the remedy is being decided.

What made it difficult

ISPM 15 covers every piece of solid wood packaging over 6 mm thick in the consignment, including chocks, blocking and loose dunnage, not only the visible crate.

North American practice offers no general on-arrival treatment route for non-compliant wood packaging, so the realistic outcomes are export or destruction of the packaging.

The commercial clock does not stop during an inspection, and terminal demurrage runs alongside carrier detention while the hold is worked through.

Marks must be legible, permanent and applied by an authorised treatment provider, so a photocopied certificate or a hand-painted stamp is not acceptable evidence.

How it is approached

The first step is to establish exactly what failed, because the remedy differs. Request the inspection notice and photographs. A missing IPPC mark, an illegible mark, a mark on the crate but not on the bracing, and live pest evidence are four different findings. A mark that exists but was obscured by a label or by paint can sometimes be resolved through the treatment provider's records, whereas genuinely untreated timber cannot.

Where the wood is untreated, treatment after arrival is generally not available in North America. The consignment is ordered exported, or the packaging is destroyed under supervision. If the machine can be separated from its packaging at an approved facility, the wood can sometimes be removed and destroyed while the cargo itself proceeds, but that requires the authority's agreement and an approved site, and it is not offered at every port of entry.

While the decision is worked, cost control matters as much as the technical fix. Free time at the terminal is short and detention on the carrier's equipment runs in parallel. A forwarder should be applying for an extension of free time on the grounds of a regulatory hold, obtaining a re-export quotation in advance rather than after the decision, and telling the importer the daily run rate so the commercial choice can be made against real figures.

Prevention belongs in the purchase order, not the packing bay. Specify ISPM 15 compliant heat treated timber for all crating, require the IPPC mark on at least two opposing faces of every wooden item, insist that any last-minute bracing or chocking uses treated stock from the same supplier, and photograph the marks before the container doors are closed. Those photographs are the evidence that resolves most illegibility disputes.

Takeaways

• ISPM 15 is a packaging rule rather than a cargo rule, so compliant machinery can still be refused entry because of a single untreated chock.
• North American ports generally offer no post-arrival treatment option, which makes prevention far cheaper than any available remedy.
• Demurrage and detention accrue once free time expires regardless of whose error caused the hold, so the daily cost should be quantified on day one.
• Photographs of the IPPC marks taken before loading settle most arguments about legibility without the cargo needing to move.

Frequently asked