Here is an interesting way to look at the TC vs VC decision making process.
Another tough one to get your head around - so bare with me.
Lets say you the charterers have a cargo of coal ready to fix on voyage charter to a shipowner. The shipowner will price this voyage as follows
Cost plus margin (expected profit) = total freight charged.
The point here is that the shipowner will only move the cargo if he sees a profit. Or put another way - you the cargo owner are paying someone a margin to move your goods.
So the other choice you have is to remove that margin by doing it yourself at cost. This means instead of Voyage Charter you decide to try Time charter.
The only problem with attempting to do this voyage at cost (time charter) is that now you have extra risks and responsilities. You also need more xpertise and manpower to execute the voyage.
This is where the margin (payable in a voyage charter) goes. In a voyage charter you are paying a slight premium because you are giving over risk and expertise to a shipowner.
The reason why I have been thinking about these concepts is because I am currently mentoring a very small group of students who are super keen to expand their shipbrokering and chartering knowledge.
This blog process helps get the concepts clear in my mind.
Hoping it helps you too..
Yours
VS
Hello VR. I just bought your books and so far it's the best 50 bucks i spent. Really gave me a more in depth detail of who the players are and what exactly they do. Question. How is a shipbroker who does bulk cargo different from one who specializes in tankers? Are the skills interchangeable? Is it basically the same thing just with different cargoes because I do know when your dealing with tankers in general it's a whole different ball game.
ReplyDeleteHey there maritime 11.
ReplyDeleteThank you for you nice words.
Tanker and bulk cargo are slightly different in the way things are transacted. Tanker use a completely different sytem for working out freight rates. So the voyage estimator pack (soon to come) is really on useful for dry cargo.
There are similarities though. The cultures are the same, many of the clients are the same, and the basic principals of broking, shipowning and chartering are the same..
But they are different in important way too.
Yours
VS