What are bills of lading?
The document that underpins ocean freight — and why it matters for trade intelligence.
A bill of lading (BoL) is the contract of carriage between a shipper and a carrier. For ocean freight into the United States, AMS and related filings produce structured records that include shipper, consignee, vessel, ports, containers, and cargo descriptions.
Trade intelligence platforms index these public customs records so importers, forwarders, and sales teams can answer questions like: Who ships this product into Long Beach? Which consignees receive from a given overseas supplier?
ManifestScope focuses on making that search usable across web, API, MCP, and Manifest AI — with transparent credit metering so you always know what a query costs.
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