Neptune Atlas
Ship broking and chartering guides
Notes on how ship broking actually works, written while building a desk against the world merchant fleet. Every figure here is measured rather than estimated.
Fundamentals
The distinctions the rest of the product is built on.
Chartering terms and abbreviations, A to Z177 chartering terms and short forms from a circular, an enquiry and a recap, each expanded and defined in a sentence or two.
Position list vs AIS vs port line-upThree things people often mix up in chartering: where a ship is, when it is free next, and what the port authority expects at the berth.
Reading a ship's particularsWhat each figure on a vessel description limits, why GRT measures volume, and why draught rules a ship out long before deadweight does.
Ship broker software vs spreadsheetsMost broking desks run on Excel and e-mail, and for a while that is the right choice. What breaks, in what order, and when it stops being the right choice.
The IMO numberSeven digits that stay with a ship for its whole life. How the check digit works, and why MMSI cannot replace it.
What a ship broker doesThe job itself: two lists nobody publishes, a market with no price screen, and a commission paid only when a deal is done.
Who is who on a fixtureA dozen parties, several called the owner and two called the agent. Who gives instructions to whom, and who you may phone.
Enquiries and tonnage
What arrives by e-mail every morning, and how to read it.
Aframax vs SuezmaxTwo crude tanker classes, one named after a rate scale and one after a canal. Cargo sizes, routes, and where the published ranges disagree.
Dry bulk vessel sizesHandysize to Capesize: where the deadweight bands sit, why their edges are trade habits, and how many ships fall in each.
Handysize vs Handymax vs Supramax vs UltramaxThe four geared bulk carrier classes side by side: deadweight, cranes, draft and trades, and why the limits between them keep changing.
How to read a cargo enquiryThe e-mail that says a charterer needs something moved, read field by field, and why an enquiry is not an offer.
How to read a tonnage circularThe open-tonnage e-mail: its fields, the short forms added to each line, and why the ship's name is the hard part.
Kamsarmax vs PanamaxSame beam (width), longer hull, deeper draft. Where the two names come from, what each ship can carry, and which limits still bind.
Laycan: laydays and cancellingTwo dates with opposite jobs: the earliest date a charterer must accept the ship, and the latest date after which they may refuse it.
Matching a cargo to a shipOne cargo, five open ships and one real candidate. Which checks are simple arithmetic, which are judgement, and why the shortlist is short.
Tanker sizesHandy to ULCC: where the tanker size bands sit, and why the coating and the last three cargoes decide suitability, not the deadweight.
What a ship can actually liftA 58,000 deadweight ship does not lift 58,000 tonnes, and at a shallow berth it may not lift 52,000. The sums, written out step by step.
Deals
The contract, the clock against it, and the arithmetic.
Ballast bonusA lump sum the charterer pays to bring a ship empty from a distant open area, priced from the fuel and days of that empty leg.
Bunkers and fuel gradesTwo fuel grades, sometimes three, each with its own price. The largest number on a voyage estimate is also the one nobody guarantees.
Charterparty formsNobody writes a charterparty from a blank page. People name a printed form, change it, and then disagree about which part of the document applies.
Contracts of affreightment (COA)One contract, many cargoes, no named ship. How a COA is scheduled and nominated, and why a nomination cannot be taken back once it is sent.
Delivery and redelivery on a time charterHire starts at delivery and stops at redelivery. Each end fixes a place, notices, the fuel on board and the ship's condition.
Demurrage vs detentionOne is a daily rate agreed before the delay, the other is a loss proved after it. Container shipping uses both words for something else.
Despatch vs demurrage, with a worked calculationWho pays whom when a ship finishes late or early, and one port call priced three ways from the same statement of facts.
Firm offers, counters and subjectsAn indication costs nothing, a firm offer holds the ship, and a fixture on subs is not yet a fixture. The steps from enquiry to clean fixture.
Freight payment termsEarning freight and paying freight are two different moments. Which one the charterparty names decides who carries the risk if the ship or cargo is lost.
How ship broker commission worksThe owner pays every commission on a fixture out of the freight, even the charterer's broker's. How the percentages add up, and what they are due on.
How to calculate laytime and demurrageWhen the clock starts, what stops it, how the demurrage figure is worked out, and why most claims fail on the paperwork, not on whether they were right.
How to charter a ship for your cargoThe order the work goes in when you have a cargo and need a ship, from the first enquiry to the signed charterparty.
How to do a voyage estimate, step by stepNine steps from a cargo enquiry to a daily figure, with a worked example, and how to turn the sum round when you know the daily rate you want and need the freight.
ILOHC, CEV and other time charter extrasThe small sums in a time charter that are not hire: hold cleaning in lieu, a monthly sum for communications and meals, war risk premium. How each one is charged.
Notice of readinessThe one page that starts the laytime clock: arrived, ready, tendered, and the different way each of those three is challenged.
Off-hire on a time charterHire runs every day the ship is in service. The off-hire clause lists the few events that stop it, and the charterer has to prove them.
Relet and the margin over hireWhen you pay hire and fix the ship out, the daily figure is your margin over hire, not what the ship earns. Why break-even leaves only a few dollars a day.
Reversible laytime, with a worked exampleOne voyage counted twice, once with separate laytime at each port and once reversible, and where the difference in money comes from.
SHINC vs SHEX in laytimeWhether Sundays and holidays count against the charterer, what UU and EIU do to a worked weekend, and one timeline run under each term.
Speed and consumption claimsA ship described at about 13 knots on about 30 tonnes is making a promise. How that promise is tested, and how a shortfall turns into money.
The fixture recapThe e-mail that says what was agreed. Written in minutes, read by a tribunal years later, and the contract until the charterparty is drawn up.
The statement of factsThe agent’s timed record of everything that happened in port. Every demurrage claim is decided on it, long after anyone was there to see.
Time charter equivalentFreight per tonne cannot be compared with hire per day until you divide it by the voyage. This is the arithmetic that does it.
Voyage charter vs time charterHow the two main charter types split the risk, what each side pays for, and which terms exist in only one of them.
Weather working day in laytimeThree wordings of the same weather exception, and what each one takes out of laytime for the same two hours of rain.
Ships and the sea
What a ship is, how it is measured, and what keeps it upright.
Classification societiesClass is a private standard for hull and machinery plus a cycle of surveys. It is not a regulator and not a judgement on the owner.
Draft survey: weighing cargo by displacementA draft survey does not weigh the cargo. It weighs the ship twice and subtracts, and the errors in between turn into shortage claims.
How a ship is measuredTonnage is a volume, deadweight is a weight, and the canals keep a third set of figures. Where each number on a ship comes from.
Hull form and resistanceHow much fuel a ship burns depends on the shape of its hull, and on how clean that hull has been kept since the last drydocking.
Marine propulsion and enginesOne slow two-stroke engine turning one propeller with no gearbox. Why that design became the standard, and why a speed warranty is a promise, not a fact.
Ship stability basicsWhy a ship returns upright, what GM really measures, and why a very stiff ship is a problem and not a safety margin.
Ship types and what they carryThe physical state of the cargo decides the type of ship, and a register’s type field hides most of the differences a broker needs.
Suez and Panama canal transitsA canal saves days but costs money and sometimes time in a queue. How the tolls are set, what limits the ship, and how the choice shows in an estimate.
Cargo work
Getting the cargo aboard, keeping it there, and getting it out again.
Breakbulk and project cargoCargo that is counted in pieces, not tonnes, where the largest piece decides which ship can carry it.
Cargo securing and lashingWhy the ship with the best stability figures is often the worst place to put a heavy piece of cargo.
Dangerous goods and the IMDG CodeFour pieces of information turn a hazardous cargo into one that can be shipped. An enquiry without them is not yet an enquiry.
Dry bulk cargo handlingThe ship arrives, and then five separate things have to go right before a single tonne of cargo is on board.
Grain cargoes and stabilityThe cargo that can capsize a ship nowhere near its load line, and the document that decides whether the ship may carry it.
Stowage factor and broken stowageTwo numbers that both turn space into tonnes. Only one of them is printed in the cargo book.
Tanker cargo operationsThe cargo is pumped, the ship must be approved before it is fixed, and the quantity is measured twice by two parties who often disagree.
Law and insurance
Who carries which risk, and the conventions that decide it.
Bills of ladingA receipt, proof of a contract and the key to the cargo, all on one piece of paper. Most disputes come from mixing up the three.
EU ETS and CII in charterpartiesCarbon now has a price and a rating. Who must hand over allowances, how a charter moves the cost to the party burning the fuel, and what to check before fixing.
General averageA loss caused on purpose to one party to save everyone is shared by all of them. That is why a cargo owner who did nothing wrong can receive a demand for money.
Hague-Visby, Hamburg and Rotterdam RulesOne set of rules covers most world trade, one is in force only in minor trading nations, one is not in force at all, and the oldest is still law in the United States.
Incoterms for charteringThe sale contract decides who has to find the ship. Which party charters under each sea term, and where the sale terms and the charter stop matching.
Liens, cesser and deadfreightProving the claim is the easier part. These clauses decide whether an owner can actually collect the money.
Maritime arbitrationOne line in the recap decides where your dispute is heard. It is usually written last and read least.
P&I clubs and marine insuranceA ship carries several insurances that do not overlap, so “is the ship insured?” is not a question with one answer.
Safe port and safe berthIs the safe port promise a guarantee, or only a duty to take care? One line in the charter, and two different answers depending on the law that applies.
Operations and safety
The rules a ship is run under and the people who enforce them.
Ballast water managementEvery ship carries water it does not mean to move. Two sets of rules now control it, and meeting the first set does not satisfy the second.
Port agency and disbursementsSomebody has to meet the ship. Who appoints the agent, who the agent answers to, and how a PDA becomes an FDA.
SOLAS explainedThe safety convention every merchant ship is certified under. What is in it, and the few chapters a broker meets by name.
STCW and crewingSkills, crew numbers and employment are three separate sets of rules. Which one answers which question, and where rest hours come from.
The ISM Code and the DOC holderEvery ship has one company legally responsible for running it safely. Knowing which company that is tells you more than the registered owner does.
The ISPS Code and security levelsThe rules for ship and port security, the certificate they produce, and the charter dispute about who pays when the security level goes up.
The MARPOL annexesSix annexes, six different things a ship may not put into the sea or the air. Which are optional, which need record books, and which cost freight.
Markets and money
What freight costs, why it moves, and how ships are bought and paid for.
Bunker pricing and hedgingFuel is usually the largest single voyage cost, and the only one priced in a market that moves every day. Where the price comes from, and three ways to fix it.
Freight futures (FFAs)A way to fix next quarter's freight today without fixing a ship. What the contract settles against, who takes each side, and why the hedge is never exact.
Freight markets and the Baltic indicesThe BDI is a panel of brokers' judgement on set routes, not a price anyone paid. What it is for, and what it cannot tell you about your ship.
Sale and purchaseA ship carries cargo, and it is also an asset that is bought and sold. The steps of an S&P deal, and the traps between a first price and delivery.
Ship financeAlmost every hull sits in its own company with a mortgage over it. That explains the ownership record, the loan terms, and the rate an owner cannot accept.
Ship recycling and demolitionThe final sale is priced on the weight of the ship itself, not its cargo capacity. LDT, cash buyers, and the last voyage that mixes up the register.
Shipping cyclesSupply is a fleet ordered three years ago, and demand is not. That mismatch is the main reason freight rates behave the way they do.
Worldscale explainedWS 92.5 is a percentage of a published rate for one specific voyage. What the flat rate is, and why the same number means different money on different routes.
Reference
Where the data comes from, and what it will not tell you.
Best ship chartering software for small desksNetpas, ShipNext, Sedna, ShipAtlas, Shipfix, Kpler, Signal Ocean and a spreadsheet, compared with what a small desk does every day.
Emission control areasTen areas where the fuel a ship may burn has a stricter limit than the global one. Which lines are exact, which are traced, and which do not apply yet.
Flag states and open registriesA flag decides whose law and whose certificates a ship carries. Open registries are ordinary business and do not prove anything on their own.
How to find a ship's owner from its IMO numberThe steps from seven digits to a company name, what each free source really shows, and the owner that no public source will give you.
Navigating limits and AWIWLFour letters on a recap that point to a hull insurer’s list of sea areas. Most are excluded only in winter, and none is forbidden outright.
Port line-up data sourcesWhich port authorities publish a berthing schedule, the format each one uses, and why nobody sells a worldwide line-up feed.
Port state control and detentionsA detained ship cannot do its job. What an inspection records, and how to read a ship's record without judging it on a single inspection.
Ship names change, and they are not uniqueNames repeat and names change. Why a name is the worst way to identify a hull, and the ranked match that works instead.
War risk areasAn insurers’ list of sea areas, not a report of last week’s attacks. What being inside one does to the premium, the crew, the route and the rate.
What ship chartering software costsGovernment contract records show real prices for products whose vendors will not publish one.
Who owns a shipA ship has up to five companies behind it, and they are not the same. Only one of them answers a chartering e-mail.
Neptune Atlas
Chartering software for a broking desk, covering the whole cycle: the world merchant fleet, position lists, cargo enquiries, fixtures, laytime and demurrage, and who to write to. Every paid plan starts with 7 free days. A card is needed to start them, and cancelling before they end costs nothing.
Try 7 days free Ship chartering software for brokers What each plan includes