Flax Moisture Regain Impact on Yarn Count and Mass Verification
Flax moisture regain directly alters measured yarn count and fabric mass; accurate verification requires oven-drying to normalize weights against standard commercial regain allowances.
Landed Mass Adjustment
Commercial Billing
International transactions of bast fibres are conducted based on dry weight calculations to account for natural fluctuations in moisture content during transit. A landed mass adjustment is a financial correction applied to the invoice value of a fibre shipment based on the difference between the shipped weight and the weight measured upon arrival at the buyer’s warehouse. This procedure prevents disputes caused by the natural loss or gain of moisture during ocean transport.
Moisture Correction
To determine the correct adjustment, inspectors extract core samples from the incoming bales and dry them in a laboratory oven to find the absolute dry mass. The commercial invoice is then recalculated using the agreed standard moisture regain percentage.
Contract Settlement
If the fibre shipment absorbed moisture from the air during transit, the landed weight will be higher than the shipped weight, but the amount of usable dry flax remains unchanged. Conversely, a dry voyage will cause the bales to lose weight, which would result in an unfair financial loss for the buyer without this adjustment. This mechanism guarantees that the buyer only pays for the actual dry fibre mass plus the standard commercial moisture allowance, stabilizing the transaction value across different shipping seasons.