The air and sea appraisal is a necessary document for the shipment of lithium batteries or goods containing lithium batteries by air or sea. Its purpose is to ensure the safety of the transportation of batteries or products with batteries. The air and sea certificates are updated annually following the annual update of the transportation rules. Its important feature is "annual validity".

Annual validity means: the certificate you issued in 2020 can only be used until December 31, 2020 (that is, whether you are in January, May, September, or November, as long as you apply before December 31 Yes, after the 31st, you need to re-apply for the "Air and Sea Appraisal Certificate"). In other words, shipping from January 1, 2021 must use the latest version of the air and sea appraisal certificate.

The main contents of the revision of the latest transportation rules regarding lithium batteries are as follows:

1. Air transport approval for special terms A88 (prototypes or small-batch production of lithium batteries that have not undergone UN38.3 testing), and air transport approval for special terms A99 (lithium battery packs with a net weight of more than 35 kg), except for the approval of the country of origin In addition, it also requires the approval of the country where the air carrier (airline) is located, expanding the scope of the approved government involved.

2. Modified the special terms approved by A99 to ensure that when the lithium battery is shipped by air, the shipper’s declaration form and packaging instructions comply with PI 974 in the ICAO TI Supplement.

3. Use the new Lithium Battery Handling Mark, allowing this mark to be 100 x 100mm square, and the smallest mark size is 100x70mm. This mark size is consistent with other labels. The new wording in the regulations on the use of marks indicates that the marks must be square or rectangular, which makes it possible to continue to use the current size of 120x110 mm.

4. The regulations on portable electronic equipment (PED) and PED backup batteries were revised, and the regulations on electronic cigarettes and PED powered by wet non-spillable batteries were merged into Section 2.3.5.8. For illustration and clarification, it is stipulated that these are applicable to dry batteries and nickel-hydrogen batteries, not just lithium batteries.

5. The content of the special clause A154 was revised to solve the problem of damaged and defective lithium batteries. Special provisions prohibit the transportation of lithium batteries or batteries identified as damaged or defective according to A154.

6. Amend A201 so that lithium batteries can be transported on passenger aircraft as cargo with the approval of the country of origin and the operator under emergency medical needs.

7. PI 965 ~ PI970 Section II, if there are multiple battery packaging instructions on one air waybill, they can be combined into one statement.

8. For PI 967 and PI 970, it must be ensured that the equipment cannot be moved in the outer packaging; if there are multiple pieces of equipment in the packaging, the packaging must be firmly packed together to prevent contact with other equipment in the packaging and cause damage.

The 2021 air and sea appraisal certificate and MSDS report update preparation work has been started. Customers are requested to prepare the information in advance.

Information required to apply for air and sea appraisal:

UN38.3 test report+UN38.3 test summary+MSDS+1.2M drop test report.

Application cycle for air and sea appraisal

Re-test MSDS cycle: 2 working days

Re-apply for air and sea appraisal cycle: 10-12 working days

ZRLK Warm Reminder: In order to avoid peak periods, please make preparations in advance for the annual update of the 2021 air and sea appraisal, so as not to affect normal shipments!