Charter a vessel for your fertilizer cargo.

How AI helps with fertilizer cargoes

Fertilizers differ more than their names suggest, and the wrong ship or a wet hold can spoil a cargo. CharterDeck's AI keeps the cargo's own properties in view while it screens and ranks ships:

• Records the cargo's IMSBC group from the shipper's declaration and never assumes it from the product name; an unconfirmed group is flagged for your broker
• Screens out ships whose hold condition or previous cargoes don't suit a clean, dry fertilizer
• Checks the ship's cranes and grabs against the equipment at the discharge port
• Works out the intake from the stowage factor, for bulk or for bagged cargo
• Ranks the options on freight and whole-voyage economics, so your broker opens the negotiation with the strongest ships

Keeping the cargo dry

Many fertilizers take up moisture from the air and cake or lose quality if they get wet. Weather-tight hatch covers, dry holds and closing the hatches when it rains during loading and discharge are part of choosing the ship, not an afterthought.

Cargo classification

Under the IMSBC Code, fertilizers range from cargoes that are not classed as hazardous, such as urea, to some ammonium nitrate-based grades that are dangerous goods (class 5.1). The shipper's declaration sets the group for each shipment, and it decides which ships, holds and precautions are acceptable.

Contamination and cleaning

Different fertilizers, and residues of earlier cargoes, must not mix. Holds are cleaned and inspected to the standard the cargo needs, and the time and cost of that cleaning belong in the comparison between ships.

Bulk or bagged

Fertilizers move in bulk on bulk carriers, or bagged on general cargo and bulk ships. Bags, big bags and pallets change the intake, the loading rate and how the cargo is discharged.

Which ships suit a fertilizer parcel

Fertilizer parcels in bulk commonly move on handysize and supramax bulk carriers; general cargo ships take smaller or bagged lots. A geared ship matters where the discharge port has no shore cranes. The fit depends on the quantity, the packaging and the ports.

What your broker needs to find ships and quote

• Product and grade, e.g. granular urea or NPK
• Bulk or bagged, and the bag type and weight if bagged
• Quantity and tolerance
• IMSBC group and any dangerous-goods class, as declared by the shipper
• Load and discharge ports, and any gear needed at discharge
• Laycan and load and discharge terms

What moves the freight

• Ship size, and the handysize and supramax market at the time
• Ballast distance to the load port
• Hold cleaning and inspection requirements
• Rain delays and how weather time counts in laytime
• Discharge rate and equipment at the receiving port
• Dangerous-goods handling and port rules, where they apply

How a fertilizer fixture runs with CharterDeck

• You send the requirement, in a minute with the form or as you would circulate it
• Our AI structures it, screens suitable ships and compares the voyage economics
• Your broker reviews the shortlist with you and checks every point the AI has flagged
• Your broker works the owners and negotiates freight and terms
• The recap is issued from the agreed terms, and the voyage is followed to discharge