This Article was Published: 28 / 2 / 2012
BUNKERS VS CARGO

 

We are all experiencing a Shipping crisis similar to the '70's,'80's and '90's with very poor freight rates, oversupply of tonnage and due to the banking system turmoils...limited credit lines and LAST BUT NOT LEAST : the bunker prices going off the rooftops!

In a bad freight market, economies must be made and do the outmost to maximize earnings on each voyage by cutting down expenses to the minimum.

If you agree with  the above last statement I hope that you will be benefited greatly considering the following:

Perhaps, there have been times in your shipping career that you might have been taken by surprise with the volatility of the BUNKERS COSTS.

Bunkers costs is a major cost in vessel's running expenses and something you can't ignore in a poor freight market like this.

Sometimes, you might even have witnessed, that the difference between prices available at each end of a voyage exceeds the value of the freight per ton of cargo carried!

Thus in difficult times, a good forward planning has to be made and surprisingly anyone can discover  that CARGO INTAKE SHOULD BE RESTRICTED so that maximum quantities

of bunkers can be lifted at a loading port where bunker supplies are a lot less expensive than at the intended discharging port.

==>GREAT DEAL OF MONEY CAN BE SAVED, OR LOST for the shipping company, depending on how the balance looks between cargo and bunkers! <==

A bunkers planning framework if followed or put into the computer can make you huge savings and cut back your company's running expenses .

Unplanned bunkering or, alternatively, calculated by some one on the back of a napkin can waste you lots of money!

Systematic planning by the ship operator for each voyage of a vessel, can produce very large savings of thousands of dollars protecting and maximising your company's income.


HERE ARE THE PARAMETERS FOR CONSIDERATION AND RESPOND FOR  A WELL THOUGHT BUNKERS FORWARD PLANNING:

1. What is the optimum speed and consumption for the voyage? The first calculation.

2. Steaming, time and consumption.

3. What price? Alternatives and how to choose?

4. Freight or bunkers?

5. Unusual cases to be considered and be prepared.


A DWT 40,000 bulk carrier proceeding from Rotterdam in ballast to load steel products and wood pulp in Brazil, then sailing on to Durban to discharge  and take further cargo, before sailing finally to Japan.

Where should she lift up bunkers and to what extend?  Rotterdam? Durban? Singapore? Japan?

Many alternatives to be considered and each one at each own merit on a voyage-by-voyage bunker buying basis.

Knowledge and information is power which is interpreted in MONEY SAVINGS OR PROFITS,  if you know how to appropriately apply them to your benefit.

I hereby wish to take this opportunity to thank you all for your kind support and acknowledgement contributing in our company's value.


Sincerely Yours,

Anastasios A. Maraslis

President/Director.

 

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