Contracts

How to charter a ship for your cargo

Published 2 October 2026

You have a cargo and a window to move it in, and you need a ship. Chartering one is not complicated, but it has an order, and most of the trouble comes from doing a step late: an enquiry that leaves out the laycan, an offer accepted before the terms were compared, a recap nobody checked against the charterparty. This guide follows the order the work actually goes in.

Describe the cargo the way owners read it

Owners and brokers read dozens of enquiries a day and answer the ones they can price. An enquiry they can price carries:

• Commodity, and anything unusual about it: dangerous goods, dimensions, a stowage factor.
• Quantity with a tolerance, for example 30,000 tonnes 10% more or less in owner's option.
• Load and discharge ports, or a range, with any draft or length limits you know.
• Laycan: the first and last day the ship may present at the load port.
• Terms: how fast the cargo loads and discharges, and who pays for cargo handling.
• Commission payable on the freight, and your company name, or that you are posting anonymously.

Leave one out and the first reply is a question rather than an offer. The cargo enquiry guide covers each field, and laycan and stowage factor each have their own.

Choose the contract

A cargo owner with one parcel almost always fixes on a voyage charter: freight per tonne, and the owner carries the cost of the voyage and the risk that it takes longer. A time charter means paying hire per day and running the ship yourself, which suits a charterer with operating staff. Repeated cargoes on the same route over a year can go on a contract of affreightment. The voyage charter vs time charter guide sets out who pays for what under each.

Reach the market

There are three routes, and many cargo owners use more than one.

Through a broker. A shipbroker circulates the enquiry to the owners they know, filters the answers and negotiates for you. Brokers are normally paid a percentage of the freight, written into the charterparty. A good broker earns it by knowing which owners have suitable ships open in the right place.

Direct to owners. A cargo owner with regular business often knows the owners and operators in its trade and writes to them directly. The work a broker would do, checking the ship and the counterparty, then falls on you.

On a marketplace. Post the cargo once to a board that owners and brokers read. On the Neptune Atlas marketplace a posting can be named or anonymous, the rate idea stays hidden unless you choose to show it, and every reply carries the sender's name and address. Posting a cargo needs a free account.

Compare offers on the same basis

Two offers at the same freight can be very different deals. Before choosing, put them side by side on:

• Freight and its terms: per tonne or lumpsum, and whether loading and discharge costs are in or out.
• Laytime and demurrage: how much time is allowed in port, and the daily rate once it runs out. A cheap freight with a high demurrage rate can cost more at a congested port.
• The ship: size, age, flag, class and inspection record, and whether she can reach your berth. Check her IMO number rather than her name, since names are reused.
• The owner: who is offering the ship and who actually trades her. The four ownership roles explain why those can be different companies.

The laytime and demurrage guide explains the clock, and the free laytime calculator works out what a delay would cost.

Firm offer, subjects and the recap

Negotiation narrows to a firm offer, open for a stated time, usually with subjects: conditions such as the charterer's approval of the ship or a receiver's confirmation. Once both sides lift their subjects, the ship is fixed. The firm offers and subjects guide covers what each stage commits you to.

The recap then sets down every agreed term in one message, and the charterparty is drawn up from it on a standard form, usually GENCON for dry cargo, with a rider of agreed clauses. Check the recap line by line against what was agreed. An error there becomes an error in the contract. See the fixture recap and charterparty forms.

After the fixture

The ship is nominated, sails for the load port and tenders notice of readiness on arrival, which normally starts the laytime clock. The agents at each port record what happened, hour by hour, in the statement of facts, and laytime, demurrage or despatch are worked out from it. Keep every document. A demurrage claim can arrive months later, and it is settled on the paper, not on anyone's memory of the berth.

References

• BIMCO, GENCON 2022, 2022. bimco.org
• BIMCO, CMI, FONASBA and the Baltic Exchange, Laytime Definitions for Charter Parties 2013, 2013. fonasba.com

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