Ship sizes in the names the market uses

The register gives a size class to every ship with a known deadweight (DWT, the weight a ship can carry), 75,596 of them, worked out from the deadweight, not typed in: coaster, handysize, supramax, panamax, capesize. A tonnage search uses a deadweight range, a size class, and a route from one region to another. That is how a cargo is described before anyone knows which ship will carry it.

If a ship has no known deadweight, it is shown as unknown, never as zero. That matters most here, because a ship with zero deadweight would come first in every size search.

Turn position-list emails into searchable dry bulk tonnage

Owners and other brokers send position lists (lists of ships that are free soon) by e-mail. No vendor sells them. That is why this product starts with your mailbox, not with a data feed.

Connect the e-mail account you already use, and each circular (tonnage e-mail) is read when it arrives: the ship, the open dates, the port or trading area. The owner's own words are kept next to it. Nothing goes on the board until a broker confirms it. A circular gives a ship name without an IMO number (the ship's permanent ID), and thousands of ships share a name, so the reading is automatic but a broker chooses the ship.

See how position list software turns incoming vessel circulars into searchable open tonnage.

Cargo enquiries arrive and are read in the same way. If your desk trusts the results, voyage cargoes can be saved without review. Time charter enquiries are always reviewed, because hiring a ship for a period is not a single cargo.

From an enquiry to a fixture

Tonnage search

Desk and above

Search by deadweight range, size class, and where the ship needs to be, across the ships on your own desk and the shared register. Results from your e-mail and from our records are shown apart, because they are different sources.

Sea distance and passage time

Desk and above

Between any two of 11,425 ports. The route follows the sea, not a line over land, uses canals where needed, and turns a speed into days.

Voyage estimate and TCE

Chartering and above

Freight, fuel (bunkers) by grade, port costs, canal fees, address commission (the charterer's share) and brokerage. The result is the TCE (time charter equivalent), the ship's earnings per day. It tells you if a cargo is worth taking. For a full estimate on real sea routes, compare voyage costs and TCE in the voyage estimator.

One cargo against several ships

Fleet and above

Run the same estimate for up to eight ships at once, sorted by TCE per day, so the ship you offer first is chosen on the numbers.

Fixtures

Desk and above

Track each deal from firm offer, to subjects (agreed, with conditions still open), to fixed. The recap (written summary of the deal) is kept exactly as it was sent, not rebuilt later from data that changed.

Laytime and demurrage

Chartering and above

Laytime is the time allowed to load or discharge. The statement of facts (the port log) becomes the time sheet: time allowed, time used, and the demurrage (money for delay) or despatch (money for finishing early). Weather and other stops show their reasons, so you can argue a claim from the sheet, not from memory.

Who owns the ship, and who to call

There are four roles, and they are often four different companies: the registered owner, the group owner, the technical manager and the commercial manager. A broker needs the commercial manager, which is almost never the name on the certificate.

45,386 ships have a commercial contact you can e-mail about a fixture. The rest are shown as having no contact. We do not fill the gap with a guess.

What it costs, or read how a cargo is matched to tonnage across 101,900 ships.