A day in the life of a Shipbroker

A Shipbroker is a person or entity who

A shipbroker acts as an intermediary between ship owners and charterers or the
buyers and sellers of ships.
A shipbroker maybe part of a shipbroking department in the principals own
organisation, or part of a separate company within which individual brokers tend to
specialise as owners or charterers brokers.
There can be an extended chain of
brokers (occasionally only one) between
the two principals. Each broker involved in
the negotiations receives a commission on
the gross freight or hire earned by the ship
owner.
Various shipping business activities which
now operate under the general heading of
ship broking, may be divided into three
main disciplines:
1. Dry cargo chartering
2. Tanker chartering
3. Ship sale and purchase
In this article we will consider in detail a
typical business day of a dry cargo
Shipbroker (written in 1st person) and the
actions that a Shipbroker takes during the negotiations and servicing of a single
voyage.
Bear in mind that the process of fixing a vessel definitely takes more than 1 day,
some running into a few weeks depending on the urgency of the deal. But considering
the fact that a Shipbroker works with many clients and many contracts simultaneously,
the daily operations could include all items from this list.
The process usually starts with a call from a principal (in our case it is the charterer).
The charterer has just secured a sales contract for, say movement of coal in bulk, and
is looking to conclude a charter party, so he urgently needs a ship.
Pre-Fixture

First and foremost, I need to gather following information from the charterer before
going into the market :
Charterers & Shippers background
Type of cargo, quantity, stowage factor
Loading & discharging ports
Loading and discharging rates according to Charterers sales contracts
Commission details
Laycan (shipment date)
Based on above details, I then check :
Charterers and Shippers reputation
Last few shipments of this charterer, business address
and contact details, person in charge
If the shipper is known I check with them whether the
cargo is in port or when it is expected to arrive
If there are any possibilities to improve
loading/discharging rates
If it will be possible to avoid or reduce address
commission as it influences final freight rate
Armed with these details I go into the market looking for a ship, but as a professional
Shipbroker I already know :
Rate idea for this business
The real chances of finding suitable tonnage quickly and
Most importantly which ship owner to call so as not to delay the whole cycle
A charterer or ship owner expects any Shipbroker worth his salt to have such level of
awareness and provide some initial rate/vessel idea.
Fixture
Now comes the arduous task of contacting the right ship owner and starting the
process of negotiation.
Depending on the current state of the market, I could get the right vessel and rate
required in one call but there are times when I have to make dozens of phone calls and
emails and still wait for a few days to find a suitable ship/terms.

Well now that I have identified the right ship/rate,

1. I send the ship owners initial rate offer to the charterer
2. If the rate offer is to the liking of the charterer, then I
get the complete terms and conditions of the charter
from the shipowner and send to charterer for review
3. Charterer may agree to the terms or may wish to make
some changes which I then communicate with the ship
owner for their confirmation
4. Once an agreement has been reached, I advise the
ships details including ships certificates (where
required) to the charterer
5. The final fixture recap is prepared and confirmed with both parties
6. Get timely confirmation that all subs lifted
7. Charter party is signed by both parties
The fixture is now complete.

But before you think I can now relax with a drink with an umbrella in it, let me tell you
that all of the above is just half the battle.
Post-Fixture Loading
Everything is beautiful and hunky-dory on paper, but there is still a lot to be done on
my day.

I still need to
ensure that the charterer/shipowner has nominated an
agent at the ports
ensure that the load port agent has received the
nomination from shipowner in order to nominate the
ship with the port
monitor the agents, stevedores, shipper, cargo
movement on a daily basis
monitor that the bills of lading drafts are confirmed in
time
monitor and report loading speed, loading berth,
weather conditions etc on a daily basis
ensure that the shipowner and charterer are informed daily about current stage
of loading process
check NOR+SOF upon completion of loading and find out
if demurrage occurred or not
receive, check & send freight invoice
Post-Fixture Discharging
Ok so all the required stuff from the port of loading is done, but I still need to
ensure that the payment of freight and commission is done (get the swift copy
etc etc)
ensure that the discharge port agent receives the
nomination together with ETA
monitor the ships ETA to discharge port and
discharging prospects/queue on a daily basis till
berthing
monitor and report discharging process, holidays,
weather conditions etc
check NOR+SOF, if there is demurrage
do my final calculations of discharge port demurrage
and its payment control
Now I can sit back with that drink with an umbrella in it.. Oh

wait, I am getting another call from another cargo owner looking for a ship..!!
So as you can see, shipbroking is a demanding and often stressful career, but the
rewards can be good for a successful shipbroker.
Shipbroking is a highly competitive field and as per some unconfirmed reports,

indications are that there are far more Shipbrokers than shipowners or charterers in the
world.
A successful Shipbroker will therefore have to build a strong network of contacts
around the world, behave ethically and morally and follow best practices.
In some cases it means that you may spend decades on relationship and network
building, yet not be able to cover 80% of your main activity segment.
Fortunately there is a very useful solution which can assist you to do all of the above
using an integrated system.
OpenSea.Pro is the first ship chartering marketplace system using which you can
1. Monitor the state of the world freight market in real time
2. Instantly find vessels or cargo that match your requirement
3. Get offers, discuss terms & fix charter party online
4. Start your firm negotiations and
5. Send a final recap or other ships docs or whatever you need in a single chat
Hope this guest article about a day in the life of a shipbroker was insightful.

Do you wish to share what a typical day in the life of you looks like..??
Drop me a line with a small bio of you and your work function and if
suitable to this blog and useful for all, I will publish it..
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