Position lists

Position list software for a broking desk

A position list shows when and where each ship is free next. The software reads it from the circulars (tonnage e-mails) in your mailbox. A broker checks each entry before it goes on the board, and the owner's original text is kept.

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No company sells this data

Owners and other brokers send position lists by e-mail, as plain text. There is no data feed and no vendor that sells them. Every desk builds its list from its own e-mail.

So it starts with your mailbox. Connect the e-mail account you already use, over IMAP or OAuth, and the software reads the circulars there. Your mail stays with your provider. We never store message bodies, and the terms of service say so. A mailbox is private to the person who connected it. Nobody else at the desk can read it, not even the owner or an administrator.

What the software reads, and what it will not guess

Out of a line like MV NORDKAP / 28,650 DWT / OPEN SPORE 11-14 AUG it reads the ship name, the deadweight (DWT, how much the ship can carry), the open dates and the place. The place is often an area, not a port, because owners often give an area. If the software required a port, it would lose the position or invent a detail the owner never gave. There are 31 trading regions for this reason.

The owner's original line is always kept next to the dates the software read. Abbreviations can carry terms that no field records, and a broker needs the exact words that were sent, not a summary.

Nothing is written without a broker confirming it. A circular gives a ship name but no IMO number (the ship's permanent ID). Thousands of ships share a name, so a wrong match puts another ship on your laycan (the dates the ship can load). The reading is automatic; choosing the ship is the broker's decision.

On the board

The open tonnage board

Desk and above

Every position the desk holds. Filter by trading region and by the dates the ship is free. Each row shows where it came from: from your e-mail, from a pasted circular, or typed by hand.

Paste a circular

Desk and above

If a circular arrived in a mailbox you have not connected, paste the whole text in. The same reader and the same review screen handle it.

Replaced, not deleted

Desk and above

When an owner sends a ship again, the new position replaces the old one, but the old one is kept. You can still see what you were told last week.

Your open tonnage on a map

Fleet and above

The same board on a map, so you see at once which ships are near a cargo. A position given as an area is shown on that area, and any that cannot be placed are counted beside the map.

Tonnage search

Desk and above

Search the board for one cargo: by deadweight range, size class, region and dates. Results from your e-mail are kept apart from results from our shared ship register. Once you have shortlisted suitable ships for a cargo, use the voyage estimator to compare voyage costs and TCE. For dry bulk, see how the platform supports open-tonnage searches, cargo matching and fixture management for dry bulk desks.

For a worked example of the filters, see matching a cargo to a ship.

Three different kinds of data

A position list says when a ship is free next. AIS (ship tracking) says where the ship is now. A port line-up says which ships a port expects at its berths. Mixing them up is a common mistake, so they are three separate screens here.

AIS can show a ship in the middle of the ocean while the position list says it is free in Singapore on the eleventh. Both are true. Only the position list tells you when you can offer the ship.

The difference, explained, or what it costs.

Part of the wider shipbroking software for a chartering desk.