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Fixtures

The fixture recap

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The recap is the e-mail that records what was agreed in a fixture (a concluded charter deal). It goes out within minutes of the deal being closed. It is written in shorthand by someone who has been on the telephone all afternoon, and it is the document everyone will read when something goes wrong two years later. Until the charterparty (the formal charter contract) is drawn up, the recap is also the contract.

One recap, in full

This is the fixture that resulted from the offer and counter in the negotiation guide. The figures are examples, but the layout is real.

RECAP  MV ALKA STAR / OCEAN HARVEST TRADING   CP DATED 02 OCT 2026
WE CONFIRM THE FOLLOWING CLEAN FIXTURE, ALL SUBS LIFTED:

OWNERS      : ALKA MARITIME SA, PANAMA, AS DISPONENT OWNERS
CHARTERERS  : OCEAN HARVEST TRADING PTE LTD, 12 MARINA VIEW, SINGAPORE
VESSEL      : MV ALKA STAR, IMO 9720938, PANAMA FLAG, BLT 2016
              37,500 MT DWT ON 10.20 M SSW, LOA 180.00 M, BEAM 30.00 M
              GRAIN 47,800 CBM, 5 HO/HA, GEARED 4 X 35 MT WITH GRABS
              ALL DETAILS ABOUT AND WITHOUT GUARANTEE
CARGO       : 30,000 MT 5 PCT MOLOO CEMENT CLINKER IN BULK, SF ABT 26
LOADPORT    : 1 SB KANDLA, AAAA
DISCHPORT   : 1 SB KRISHNAPATNAM, AAAA
LAYCAN      : 08/14 OCT 2026
FREIGHT     : USD 17.25 PMT FIOST BENDS
FRT PAYMENT : 95 PCT WITHIN 5 BANKING DAYS AFTER COMPLETION OF LOADING AND
              RELEASE OF BS/L, BALANCE ON COMPLETION OF DISCHARGE
LAYTIME     : 10,000 MT PWWD SSHINC LOAD / 6,000 MT PWWD SSHINC DISCH
              NON REVERSIBLE. NOR ATDNSHINC, WIPON WIBON WIFPON WICCON
DEM/DES     : USD 13,000 PDPR / HALF DEM BENDS
AGENTS      : CHARTERERS AGENTS BOTH ENDS. OWNERS MAY APPOINT PROTECTIVE
              AGENT AT OWNERS COST
COMM        : 3.75 PCT ADDCOM PLUS 1.25 PCT TO MERIDIAN CHARTERING
LAW         : ENGLISH LAW, LONDON ARBITRATION
OTHERWISE   : AS PER GENCON 1994 AS AMENDED PER OWNERS PROFORMA CP,
              LOGICAL AMENDMENTS AS PER MAIN TERMS ABOVE

Why this and not the charterparty

A charterparty takes days to draft, check and sign, while the ship is already sailing towards the load port. The recap is what exists in the meantime, and in practice most of the voyage is carried out under it. Many voyages are finished before anyone signs anything.

Two things follow from this. First, the recap is evidence of the contract, not a summary of it, so a line written carelessly is a term agreed carelessly. Second, if the recap and the printed form later disagree, the specially agreed wording usually wins over the standard clause it contradicts, because that wording is what the parties actually negotiated. So a recap is not a draft. It is the working document until it is replaced, and sometimes even after that.

What each line is there to prevent

LineWhat it prevents
Owners, in full style A claim against the wrong company. Naming the disponent owner as such (a company that has chartered the ship in and is letting it out again) makes clear that the party letting the ship is not the shipowner. That decides who a demurrage claim is made against.
Charterers, in full style The same risk on the other side, and it lets you check whether the charterer pays its bills. "Full style" means the legal name and address exactly as they will appear in the charterparty.
Vessel description A ship that does not match the description. Every figure here is a term of the contract, not a convenience.
Cargo, quantity and tolerance An argument about how much must be loaded, and who chooses. It also sets the quantity freight is earned on.
Load and discharge, with berth counts A second berth appearing that nobody priced. 1 SB means one safe berth, and AAAA (always afloat, always accessible) makes the charterer responsible for the berth being safe.
Laycan An argument about whether the charterer may still cancel. It has two dates, and they do opposite jobs: the first is the earliest the ship may start, the second is the date after which the charterer may cancel.
Freight and its basis Comparing rates that cannot be compared. A per tonne figure means nothing without the cargo handling terms next to it, which is why FIOST BENDS is on the same line.
Freight payment terms A dispute about when money is due, which is the most common business dispute on a finished voyage. The line gives the percentage, the event that triggers payment and the number of banking days.
Laytime, with exceptions An argument over how laytime is counted. The rate, whether time at the two ends can be added together (reversible), and the notice terms are three separate decisions, and all three belong here.
Demurrage and despatch A delay with no price. Without a rate, the delay becomes a claim for damages that must be proved, which is a much worse position for whoever is owed the money.
Agents Confusion about who appoints the port agent and who pays, and whether the owner may appoint its own agent as well.
Commission An argument at settlement. Address commission is the charterer's own deduction, while the broker's percentage is separate. If they are written as one combined figure, someone will read it wrongly.
Law and arbitration A dispute about where a dispute will be heard, which is expensive and completely avoidable.
The form and its edition Bringing in a set of default clauses that nobody has read. Gencon 1994 and Gencon 2022 do not say the same things.

The vessel description is a warranty

The block that describes the ship is not just a note for the charterer's files. Deadweight on a stated draught, grain capacity, the number of holds and hatches, and the cranes and their safe working load are all promises by the owner. A ship that cannot meet them puts the owner in breach of contract.

That is why ALL DETAILS ABOUT AND WITHOUT GUARANTEE appears at the bottom. ABOUT allows a small margin on the figures. WITHOUT GUARANTEE says the description was given honestly but is not guaranteed, which removes the claim a charterer would otherwise have. Both phrases are normal and both can be negotiated. Watch for a charterer deleting them, or an owner adding them to a figure the charterer depends on, such as the cargo intake or the discharge rate.

Options, and who declares them by when

Almost every recap contains options, and the ones that cause trouble have no deadline for declaring them. Under MOLOO the owner declares the exact quantity within the tolerance. Under CHOPT the charterer declares a discharge port from a range. Loading a second grade, adding a berth or extending a period are all someone's option too.

An option with no deadline stays open until it causes damage. One extra clause, saying who declares what and how many days before arrival or before the laydays, solves most of this. It is the line most often missing from an otherwise complete recap.

The line that carries the most hidden text

OTHERWISE AS PER GENCON 1994 AS AMENDED PER OWNERS PROFORMA CP is nine words that bring in several pages of terms. The standard form is public and anyone can read it. The pro forma is the owner's own amended version of that form, and it will contain changes the owner prefers, some of them significant.

The practical rule is that if you have not seen the pro forma, you have not seen the contract. Ask for it during the negotiation, not afterwards. Identify it by its date or by the earlier fixture it came from, and read the clauses that involve money: laytime exceptions, the time limit for demurrage claims, liberty clauses and anything about cargo handling. When a recap says LOGICAL AMENDMENTS, it means the form will be adjusted to match the main terms above, and every one of those adjustments is a place where two readings are possible.

What goes out, and to whom

Two different documents share the name. The recap above is private. It goes to the clients and to the brokers in the chain, and it is the contract. A market report is the short public notice sent out afterwards, and it is deliberately brief: ship, cargo, route, rate, laycan and charterer, often without the charterer's name. It lets the market see where business is being done, and brokers use it to judge the rates for the next enquiries.

Keep the two audiences separate. Terms that are nobody else's business, payment terms in particular, belong only in the recap.

Where the record ought to live

A recap is the desk's own history in its most compact form: what was fixed, with whom, at what rate and on what terms. Left as an e-mail, it can only be found by the person who sent it, and only while that person remembers the ship's name.

The questions that come back later are not about the ship. They are about what this charterer paid last time, which demurrage rate it accepts, whether the last voyage to that berth went over its laytime, and what the desk agreed with this owner in March. Each of those is a field on the recap, and none of them can be answered by searching a mailbox for a word.

References

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Neptune Atlas

A fixture in Neptune Atlas is the recap stored as fields: vessel and cargo; owner, disponent owner and charterer as three separate companies; charter type; rate with its basis; laycan; load and discharge ports; demurrage and despatch. Each fixture has a reference code, so the desk can find the deal by the number it quoted instead of searching a mailbox for a ship's name. Every paid plan starts with 7 free days. A card is needed to start them, and cancelling before they end costs nothing.

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