What is CY Cut (Container Yard Cutoff)

DIRECT ANSWER

CY Cut (Container Yard Cutoff) is the deadline for delivering a loaded export container to the terminal before the vessel sails. It marks the close of the cargo receiving window (see What is a Cargo Receiving Window). CY Cut is set by the carrier and frequently compresses inside the final 72 hours before sailing.

What are the key facts about CY Cut in container shipping?

What it isThe last moment a loaded container will be accepted at the terminal for a specific export vessel.
Who sets itThe carrier sets the cut; the terminal enforces it at the gate. The two sources can publish different times for the same vessel.
How it movesCY Cut typically pulls in (gets earlier), not out. Late-stage compressions of several hours to a full day are common.
Missing the cutThe container is rolled to the next available vessel. The next vessel is often 7 to 14 days out and triggers demurrage, detention, and rebooking costs.
CY Cut vs Doc CutCY Cut is the physical container deadline. Doc Cut (or SI Cut) is the documentation deadline. They are different deadlines and often different times.

A real-world example

FRIDAY 5:00 PM PUBLISHED CUT, REAL CUT IS NOT FRIDAY 5:00 PM

An exporter has a booking with a published CY Cut of Friday 5:00 PM. The driver pulls the container Friday at 11:00 AM, drives 90 minutes to the terminal, and arrives at 1:00 PM expecting four hours of margin.

At 12:30 PM, the carrier had moved the cut to Friday 12:00 PM noon. The terminal portal had not yet caught up. The driver arrives at the gate, the gate clerk reads the executable cut, and the container is refused. The container is taken back to the yard, accrues storage, and is rolled to the next vessel.

Demurrage, detention, additional chassis days, and a new booking land on the exporter. The exporter committed against a published cut that was no longer the real cut.

Where does CY Cut break operationally, by role?

EXPORTER

The post-pickup backdate

The container is loaded against the published cut. The carrier moves the cut after pickup. The exporter cannot recall the truck, cannot un-load, and absorbs every downstream cost the move generates.

FREIGHT FORWARDER

The cut on the booking is not the cut at the gate

The forwarder relays a cut to the customer. The cut moves. A demurrage invoice arrives a year later citing a date that was not the date in the system at the time. With no audit trail, the dispute is unwinnable.

DRAYAGE OPERATOR

Bunched vessels collapse the gate

When the cut is real, the bottleneck is gate throughput. Trucks arrive on time, wait in line, blow the grace period, and are turned away. The truck arrives at the published cut. The cut still applies.

The published cut is a target. The executable cut is a moving deadline.

What does the data show about CY Cut revisions?

OBSERVED ACROSS U.S. EXPORT VESSEL SCHEDULES

Based on aggregated shipment observations across major U.S. ports:

A meaningful share of vessels see at least one CY Cut revision before vessel sailing.
CY Cut revisions concentrate inside the final 72 hours and most often pull the cut earlier, not later.
Carrier-published cuts and terminal-published cuts disagree often enough that one source is not reliable on its own.
Post-pickup backdates, where the cut is moved after the container has been loaded, are observable and recurring.

A single published cut conceals a range of possible executable cuts. The probability that the published cut holds varies by carrier, port, and vessel rotation.

TradeLanes analysis of U.S. export vessel schedules. Observed schedule behavior based on published carrier and terminal data.

IN SIMPLE TERMS

CY Cut is the end of the cargo receiving window. It is the last moment the terminal will accept a loaded container for a specific vessel. Missing CY Cut means the container is rolled to the next available vessel, often 7 to 14 days later.

How does CY Cut typically compress before vessel sailing?

Caption: CY Cut typically compresses, not extends. The published cut is the latest defensible target, not the actual one.

What do operators do differently with CY Cut?

01Plan against an internal cut, not the published cut. Build at least a half-day of buffer between the published CY Cut and the dispatch target. The carrier-port pairs that most often pull the cut in are the ones that need the most buffer.
02Reconcile carrier and terminal sources before dispatch. The carrier portal and the terminal portal often publish different cuts. The terminal's gate clock usually governs.
03Capture the published cut at the moment of dispatch. A timestamped record is the only defensible position when a backdated cut surfaces in a downstream invoice.
04Track the carrier-port pair, not the booking. Some pairs back-date routinely. Others do not. Plan against the pattern, not the individual booking.
05Call the cut before the truck rolls. Confirm the executable cut on dispatch day, not on booking day. The cut on dispatch day is the cut that governs.

Frequently asked questions

What does CY Cut stand for?

CY Cut stands for Container Yard Cutoff. It is the deadline for delivering a loaded export container to the terminal before the vessel sails.

Who sets the CY Cut?

The carrier sets the cut in coordination with the terminal's berthing schedule. The terminal enforces the cut at the gate. The two sources can publish different times.

What happens if you miss CY Cut?

The container is refused at the gate or returned to the yard. It is rolled to the next available vessel, which is often 7 to 14 days out. Storage, demurrage, detention, and rebooking costs land on the shipper.

What is the difference between CY Cut and Doc Cut?

CY Cut is the physical container deadline at the terminal. Doc Cut (or SI Cut) is the deadline for filing shipping documentation. They are separate deadlines, often at different times, and missing either has different consequences.

Can CY Cut be extended?

Carriers occasionally extend the cut at the vessel level when berthing or labor allows. Individual extensions for a single shipper are rare. The cut almost always moves earlier, not later.

Why does CY Cut sometimes move after I have already loaded the container?

The carrier reconciles the cut against actual berthing, yard capacity, and vessel manifest closure. When operational reality diverges from the published schedule, the cut can be back-dated even after pickup has occurred.

What is the difference between CY Cut and ERD?

ERD opens the cargo receiving window. CY Cut closes it. ERD is when the terminal will start accepting the container; CY Cut is when it stops. Together they define when the terminal will accept a loaded container for a specific vessel.

Know whether the published cut will hold before the truck rolls.

TradeLanes is the system that determines whether a plan will hold before execution. Each booking is evaluated against observed terminal and carrier behavior, and the call is delivered before the window closes.

See My Booking Risk Profile More Shipping Definitions

CY Cut Explained: The Real Deadline Exporters Actually Miss