Open ships come by e-mail, not from a vendor
A dry bulk broker can buy a position list (a list of ships that are free soon). A project desk usually cannot. The owner sends the open ships in a circular (an e-mail sent to many brokers at once). The desk that reads those e-mails first sees the market first.
So your mailbox is the starting point. Connect the e-mail account you already use, and the circulars are read as they arrive: ship, open dates, port or trading area. The owner's original words are kept next to the dates, because abbreviations like OPEN SPORE 11/14 AUG DELY DOP carry terms that no field records.
Nothing goes on the board until a broker confirms it. A circular gives a ship name but no IMO number (the ship's permanent ID), and 101,900 ships share thousands of names. So the software reads the circular and your desk decides which ship it is.
What the register holds, and what it does not
101,900 ships with an IMO number. Almost all have length overall, plus beam, deadweight, type, build year and flag. Length and beam decide if a ship fits a lock, a berth or a canal, which is often the main limit on a project cargo deal.
It does not hold gear. There is no crane capacity, no hold or hatch size, no tween deck (a second deck inside the hold). Those fields are empty, not just incomplete, so a search by lifting capacity is not possible here today.
Summer draft is known for about half the fleet. Where it is missing, it is shown as unknown, never as zero. The whole product follows this rule: a missing figure and a zero are different things and are never shown the same way.
The full process, from enquiry to deal
Cargo enquiries
Desk and aboveWhat a charterer needs moved: the commodity, the quantity, the load and discharge ports, and the laycan (the dates the ship can load). Enquiries that arrive by e-mail are read the same way as circulars. When your desk trusts the results, voyage cargoes can be saved without review.
Tonnage matching
Desk and aboveSearch the open ships on your desk for one cargo, by deadweight range, type, and route. The results show which ships are free in time and where. Results from your e-mail are kept apart from results from the shared register. For a practical explanation, see matching a cargo to a ship.
Sea distance and passage time
Desk and aboveBetween any two of 11,425 ports. The route follows the sea, not a straight line on the map, and uses canals where they apply.
Voyage estimate and TCE
Chartering and aboveFuel (bunkers) by grade, port costs, canal fees, and the TCE (time charter equivalent), the ship's earnings per day, all worked from the real sea distance.
Fixtures
Desk and aboveA fixture is the agreed deal. Track it from firm offer, to subjects (agreed, with conditions still open), to fixed. The recap (the written summary) is kept exactly as it was sent, not rebuilt from data that changed later.
Laytime and demurrage
Chartering and aboveThe statement of facts (the port log) becomes a laytime sheet, showing the time used to load or discharge. Each event has a time, each stop has a reason, and the demurrage (money for delay) or despatch (money for finishing early) is worked out for you, with no spreadsheet.
Owners and managers
Chartering and aboveWho owns a ship, and who manages it commercially and technically. There are four different roles, and they are often four different companies. Contacts are shown where your desk has them.
Project Cargo & Heavy Lift Chartering
A project cargo or heavy lift fixture needs more than a free ship. Brokers compare the cargo's needs with the ship's size, its open dates, the route and the commercial terms before they offer it.
Neptune Atlas keeps these steps in one place: the cargo enquiry, the suitable ships, the voyage estimate and the fixture.
What it is not
It is not a live tracking product. 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. These are three different kinds of data. Mixing them up is a common mistake, so they are three separate screens here.
There is a live AIS map on every plan. It shows how old the positions are, so old data is never shown as live.
Project Cargo & Heavy Lift Chartering FAQs
What is project cargo chartering software?
Project cargo chartering software helps brokers and chartering teams handle cargo enquiries, find suitable ships, check when they are free, estimate voyages and record fixtures for project and heavy lift cargo.
How does Neptune Atlas help with heavy lift chartering?
Neptune Atlas puts cargo enquiries, ship details, tonnage search, voyage estimates and fixtures in one place, so a chartering team can judge a project cargo from start to finish.
Can Neptune Atlas help find suitable tonnage for project cargo?
Yes. The tonnage search lets a broker check ships against the size, dates and route of a project cargo or heavy lift enquiry. It cannot search by crane capacity, because the register does not hold it.
Who is Neptune Atlas Heavy Lift software for?
Neptune Atlas is for brokers and chartering desks that handle project cargo, heavy lift and other special cargo, where the fit of the ship and its open dates must be checked with care.
What it costs, or read the difference between a position list, AIS and a port line-up first.