Notes from the team building African trade data.
Product releases, coverage expansions and practical guides for analysts working with customs records.
How to read a bill of lading
What the document is
A bill of lading is the contract of carriage between a shipper and a carrier. For trade analysts it is also the richest single record of a physical trade: it names the shipper and consignee, describes the goods, and fixes the vessel, ports and dates.
What we do with it
EximAfrika normalises every field on arrival — company names are resolved to a single canonical entity, weights are converted to kilograms, and HS descriptions are mapped to the six-digit tariff heading so shipments aggregate with confidence.
Why it matters
A search for a company returns every shipment it touched, regardless of how its name was typed into the manifest at origin.
Start reading the records yourself.
Search shipments, companies and products across African trade lanes.