Neptune Atlas

Fixtures

The fixture recap

·

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

One recap, in full

This is the fixture that came out of the offer and counter in the negotiation guide. The figures are illustrative; the shape is not.

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 draw, check and sign, and the ship is already steaming towards the load port. The recap is what exists in the meantime, and in practice it is what most of the fixture is ever performed against: a great many voyages are completed before anyone signs anything.

Two things follow. The recap is evidence of the contract and not a summary of it, so a line written carelessly is a term agreed carelessly. And where the recap and the printed form later disagree, the specially agreed wording generally prevails over the standard clause it contradicts, because that is what the parties actually negotiated. A recap is therefore not a draft. It is the operative document until it is replaced, and sometimes after.

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 makes it explicit that the party letting her is not the shipowner, which decides who a demurrage claim runs against.
Charterers, in full style The same on the other side, plus the ability to check whether the counterparty pays. Full style is the legal name and address as it will appear in the charterparty.
Vessel description A ship that does not answer the description. Every figure here is a term of the contract, not a convenience.
Cargo, quantity and tolerance An argument about how much has to be loaded, and who chooses. It also fixes what freight is earned on.
Load and discharge, with berth counts A second berth appearing that nobody priced. 1 SB is one safe berth; AAAA puts the safety of it on the charterer.
Laycan An argument about whether the charterer may still cancel. Two dates, doing opposite jobs.
Freight and its basis Comparing rates that are not comparable. A per tonne figure means nothing without the cargo handling terms beside 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 commercial dispute on a completed voyage. Percentage, trigger event and number of banking days.
Laytime, with exceptions An argument over the clock. The rate, whether the two ends are reversible, and the notice terms are three separate decisions and all three belong here.
Demurrage and despatch An unpriced delay. Without a rate the delay becomes a claim for damages that has to be proved, which is a far worse position for whoever is owed.
Agents Confusion about who nominates and who pays, and whether the owner may put its own agent alongside.
Commission An argument at settlement. Address commission is the charterer’s own deduction and the broker’s percentage is separate; a single combined figure will be read wrongly by somebody.
Law and arbitration A dispute about where a dispute is heard, which is expensive and entirely avoidable.
The form and its edition Importing a set of default clauses nobody has read. Gencon 1994 and Gencon 2022 do not say the same things.

The vessel description is a warranty

The block describing the ship is not a courtesy for the charterer’s files. Deadweight on a stated draught, grain capacity, hold and hatch count, gear and its safe working load are all terms the owner is promising, and a ship that cannot perform them is in breach.

Which is why ALL DETAILS ABOUT AND WITHOUT GUARANTEE appears at the bottom of it. ABOUT allows a small margin on the figures, and WITHOUT GUARANTEE says the description was given honestly but is not warranted, which removes the claim a charterer would otherwise have had. Both are ordinary and both are negotiable. The line to watch is a charterer striking them out, or an owner adding them to a figure the charterer is relying on, such as the intake or the discharge rate.

Options, and who declares them by when

Almost every recap contains options, and the ones that cause trouble are the ones with no declaration deadline attached. The quantity tolerance is declared by the owner under MOLOO. A discharge port chosen from a range is declared by the charterer under CHOPT. Loading a second grade, adding a berth, extending a period: all of them are somebody’s option.

An option without a time is an option held open until it hurts. A single extra clause, naming who declares what and how many days before arrival or before laydays, removes most of that. It is the most commonly omitted line in 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 importing several pages of terms. The standard form is public and readable. The proforma is the owner’s own amended version of it, and it will contain changes the owner prefers, some of them substantial.

The practical rule is that whoever has not seen the proforma has not seen the contract. Ask for it during the negotiation rather than after, name its date or its previous fixture, and read the clauses that carry money: laytime exceptions, the demurrage time bar, liberty clauses, and anything about cargo handling. A recap that says LOGICAL AMENDMENTS is telling you that 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, goes to the principals and the brokers in the chain, and is the contract. A market report is the public line circulated afterwards, and it is deliberately thin: ship, cargo, route, rate, laycan and charterer, often with the charterer withheld. It exists so the market can see where business is being done, and it is where the freight ideas on tomorrow’s enquiries come from.

Do not confuse the audiences. Terms that are nobody else’s business, payment terms in particular, belong only in the first one.

Where the record ought to live

Everything above is the desk’s own history in its most compressed form: what was fixed, with whom, at what, and on what terms. Left as an e-mail it is findable only by whoever sent it and only while they remember the ship’s name.

The questions that come back are not about the ship. They are what this charterer paid last time, what demurrage rate they accept, whether the last voyage into that berth went over on laytime, and what the desk agreed with this owner in March. Each of those is a field on the recap, and none of them is answerable 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 a fixture yet. The ladder from enquiry to clean fixture. Chartering abbreviationsThe abbreviations on a circular, an enquiry and a recap, grouped by where you meet them, and what each one commits you to. Voyage charter vs time charterThe risk split behind the two main charter forms, what each side pays for, and which terms only exist on one side of it. How to calculate laytime and demurrageWhere the clock starts, what stops it, how the demurrage figure is actually worked out, and why most claims are lost on the paperwork rather than the merits. Charterparty formsNobody drafts a charterparty from nothing. They name a printed form, amend it, and then argue about which half of the document wins.

Neptune Atlas

A fixture in Neptune Atlas is the recap held 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 one carries a reference code, so the desk can find the deal by the number it quoted rather than by 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.

Try 7 days free Ship chartering software for brokers What each plan includes