Who else files against your cargo

Your CSN is one message in a chain. The shipping line files the vessel's manifest, a transhipper files the inland movement, a custodian files what happens in the yard — and each of those is a separate declaration to customs, on its own guide, with its own error codes.

You never file any of them. But they reach you: a rejection on somebody else's message can name your CSN as the reason, an amendment window may close because another party's CSN was accepted, and a CFS may ask you for a filing that is not yours to make. This page is the parties, in the order the cargo meets them, and what each one's filing does to yours.

Who files what?

All of them use the same file-name shape you already know — message type, message id, reporting event, sender, job number, date — so F_TRCHE01_AR_…_DEC.json is a transhipper's arrival and F_CUCHE01_SF_…_DEC.json is a custodian's stuffing report. If a file lands in your inbox and the message id is not SACHM22, it is not yours.

The three ways someone else's filing reaches you

1. Their acceptance may close your amendment window

The one that costs money. When another party's CSN against your master bill of lading is accepted — the shipping line's own, or another forwarder's — your CSN is linked to theirs, and customs' error list has a refusal for amending or deleting a linked CSN — error 320. No reply carrying it has been seen yet, so it is a risk rather than a certainty, but it is the most consequential thing another party's filing can do to yours, and it happens without notice: amend before theirs lands if you can, and if 320 does come back, settle it with the shipping line and your jurisdictional customs officer. The line's arrival manifest does less since ICES Advisory 37/2026 (18 September 2026): you can still amend, with the line following up in its own manifest amendment (SAA), but a deletion becomes the jurisdictional customs officer's and a fresh CSN is not the route. It has its own page: Two-party filing and deadlines.

2. Their rejection can be about your CSN

A transhipper's request is refused with codes from their own list, and two of those are about your filing rather than theirs:

When a transhipper says "customs will not take my request against your cargo", these are usually what they are looking at. The number to send them is on your accepted CSN — see Every reference number, who issues it, and when.

The rest of their codes are theirs: LCB08 Insufficient Bond Balance is the transhipper's own bond, not yours, and nothing you file will change it. Every code in that family, transcribed, is in Which error list does my code come from?.

3. Someone asks you for a filing that is not yours

A line or CFS asking you for an "ITP JSON", a stuffing report, or a transhipment request has you registered under the wrong entity type. A forwarder or consolidator is registered to file SACHM22 and nothing else. The fix is with the party asking — see Party codes and PANs for what each registration category is allowed to file.

"ITP" is two different things, and only one of them is somebody else's message. The ITP in the table above is NIC's ICES 1.5 Import Transshipment message (CFCHI51). The trade's ITP — and customs' own, at JNCH — is International Transhipment: cargo landed in India and carried on to a foreign port, under CBIC Circular 14/2007-Cus. That one you very much do file, as an ordinary CSN, with cargo type TR and cargo movement TC. See cargo type, movement and the combination customs checks.

"Send us the SMTP" is the same kind of ask. The Sub-Manifest Transhipment Permit is raised by customs from the carrier's manifest at the gateway port, and it is quoted in the inland station's own ICES messages — the ICD's local IGM, the custodian's container arrival report, a CFS's Import Transshipment. A CSN has no SMTP field, and there is no SMTP for a forwarder to hold. What identifies your consignment in every one of those messages is the MCIN or PCIN. See Where the cargo goes after the gateway port.

What the transhipper actually does

Under Regulation 7, transhipment is any movement of customs cargo between two customs areas. Three things are worth carrying:

One authorised transhipper for the whole movement, whatever the modes of transport, and that party executes the transhipment bond. Not one per leg.No fresh bond per movement — the responsible party may execute a National Transhipment Bond that customs manages centrally.Each stage is declared before departure and on arrival, and the later declarations do not re-type the cargo: they link to the earlier ones by the cargo identification number. That is why the MCIN or PCIN your CSN earned matters long after the gateway port.

Their ASR is filed before departure from the port of call; DP and AR are filed for every vehicle — truck or train — carrying the cargo between inland customs areas.

What the custodian actually does

The custodian of a customs area reports what physically happened to the cargo: a stuffing report when goods go into a container, a stripping report when they come out, and arrival and departure time notifications as vehicles move. A stuffing report can be cancelled (SFCN); customs answers the custodian with CC.

Their codes are about their own message — a shipping bill not ready for stuffing, a container already stuffed, packages exceeding what the bill declared. None of it is a CSN problem, and none of it is something you can file against.

Do I need any of this to file a CSN?

No. A CSN is complete on its own, and none of these messages is a precondition for it. This page exists because the consequences arrive at your desk even though the filings do not — an amendment window at risk, a transhipper quoting a code at you, a CFS asking for the wrong file.

I have been sent one of these files. What is in it?

Every field of both messages is described in Every field a transhipper or custodian files — the transhipper's declaration, location, transport means, containers, cargo and itinerary, and the custodian's same blocks plus the event times its reports exist to carry. You cannot file either, but you can read one.

Related

Reading a transhipper or custodian file — when one of their files is sent to you, and what its error codes meanTwo-party filing and deadlines — the line's filing against your master billWhich SCMTR message do I file? — the six guides and who files whichEvery field a transhipper or custodian files — the detail behind this pageWhich error list does my code come from? — every family's codesTranshippers, CFSs and bond numbers — the fields on your filing that name themWhere the cargo goes after the gateway portEvery reference number, who issues it, and when — MCIN, PCIN and who mints them