Is the Carrier under any legal obligation to serve notice of delivery when the ship arrives at the port of destination?
Practice was that the carriers under the contract of carriage of goods by sea should spare no effort to make clear notice to the consignees or notify parties of the time and place of the arrival of their shipment. But this was not an obligation in a strict sense since there were no provisions to that effect either in the Chinese Maritime Code, which would be primarily applied to contract of carriage of goods by sea, or in the Law on Economic Contract and Law on Economic Contract Involving Foreign Interest which will be applied to contracts of carriage of goods by sea when the Chinese Maritime Code is silent in dealing with a specific issue.
This was changed after 1st, October this year when the new Chinese Contract Law comes into effect. The new Chinese Contract Law provides expressly under Article 309 that when the goods arrive at the destination, the carriers shall notify the consignees promptly if they have the knowledge of the consignees, the consignees shall take the delivery of the goods promptly.
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