Standard Allowance
Standardized moisture allowances added to oven-dry fibre weight establish the official billable mass for international trade in flax raw materials. Natural bast fibres continuously absorb and release atmospheric water, making direct scale weight unsuitable for financial settlement. Trading standards fix commercial regain for flax fibre at twelve percent above dry mass, providing a uniform baseline for buyers and sellers across different climate zones.
Contracts specify this percentage to ensure that price calculations reflect dry fibre substance rather than fluctuating humidity during transport.
Calculation Method
Laboratory oven drying at one hundred five degrees Celsius removes all water content from representative fibre samples to determine dry mass. The technician calculates invoice mass by multiplying dry mass by one plus the agreed commercial regain fraction. For example, a dry mass of one thousand kilograms with a twelve percent allowance yields an invoice mass of eleven hundred twenty kilograms.
Field measurements of actual moisture content that deviate from standard values trigger financial adjustments on delivery documents. Chinese mill receiving departments recalculate net billable weight for every incoming container load before authorizing payment releases. Discrepancies between weighed shipping mass and recalculated mass are documented on formal laboratory inspection reports.
Invoice Adjustment
Financial settlements for raw flax contracts depend on accurate mass adjustments derived from standardized regain calculations. When incoming shipments arrive drier than the standard percentage, the buyer pays an upward mass adjustment to compensate the supplier for actual fibre delivered. Conversely, damp shipments incur downward billing corrections that protect mills from paying fibre prices for excess water.
Official inspection certificates issued at destination ports serve as binding evidence for contract price finalization.