Chartering is an important method of ship leasing in international shipping. It refers to the business activity in which a cargo owner or freight forwarder (the charterer) and a shipowner (the disponent owner) sign a charter party to agree on the use of all or part of a vessel's capacity for a certain period or a single voyage. It is mainly applicable to bulk cargo, liquid cargo, or project equipment with huge volumes requiring full-ship transport, such as iron ore, coal, grain, and crude oil. Chartering is generally divided into three forms: voyage charter, time charter, and bareboat charter. Unlike liner shipping (booking), chartering features high flexibility and negotiable costs, but complicated procedures. When using chartering, note that: contract terms (such as laytime, demurrage, and despatch money) must be clear; the vessel's seaworthiness and the shipowner's creditworthiness must be verified; it is highly affected by fluctuations in the international shipping market, so freight rate indices should be monitored. In addition, chartering often involves brokers and must comply with relevant international conventions and domestic regulations.
📝 Examples
1. Our company recently needs to import 100,000 tons of iron ore from Brazil. Due to the large volume, we decided to use chartering for transport. We have signed a voyage charter party with the shipowner, agreeing that the port of loading is Tubarao Port and the port of discharge is Qingdao Port, and specifying a loading/discharging rate of 15,000 tons per day. (Note: For bulk cargo imports, a voyage charter is used, and the loading/discharging rate is specified to calculate demurrage/despatch money.)
2. Due to the tight project schedule, we temporarily chartered a heavy-lift vessel from Shanghai to Rotterdam under a time charter for a period of three months, with hire calculated on a daily basis, and fuel costs borne by us. (Note: For project equipment transport, a time charter is used, specifying hire and fuel responsibility allocation.)
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