- Aft
- The rear portion of the vessel, traditionally located behind the superstructure.
- Always Accesible Always Afloat (AAAA)
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A vessel is instructed to undertake a voyage where the access ways and berth facilities permits the vessel to access them and remain afloat at all times. Tidal ports vsits by large vessels may be non compliant with this condition. NAABSA refers to Not Always Afloat but Safely Aground.
- Anchorage
- A designated area near a loading and discharging berth where ships drop anchor to await their turn for service at a berth or cargo facility.
- Automatic Identification System (AIS)
- A mandatory electronic system stipulated by the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) for vessels exceeding 300 Gross Tonnage (GT), with special criteria for specific types of vessels. AIS primarily assists in navigation by displaying information about nearby vessels. The system transmits and receives Very High Frequency (VHF) radio signals on a designated frequency. Commercial companies have increasingly collected this data through terrestrial radio receivers and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Advances in data collection have expanded AIS utility, enabling trade pattern analysis and enhancing maritime security.
- Amsterdam,-Rotterdam-Antwerp range (ARA)
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Refer to an area where a vessel might be intstruced to go. It gives flexibility to the charterer to nominate a port within that area and instrucct the vessel to approximate there. It is also a reference to indicate, for voyage estimation purpouses, an approximate destination port.
- Ballast
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Refers to either a vessel with no cargo and with ballast water in the ballast water tanks or the ballast water itself. Ballast water is used to adjust the stability condition of a vessel. As cargo is introduced, ballast is disposed following the Ballast Water Management (BWM) convention, if applicable.
- Broker (Shipbroker)
- An agent that acts on behalf of a shipowner or a charterer such as to either find a suitable cargo for an owner or a suitable vessel for a charterer. A broker negotiates an agreement with another broker or directly to the counterparty of their client and ensures that the agreement get closed (fixed). They may also offer post fixing services (e.g. monitoring that the agreed terms are followed and the collection of money is done). They are usually paid with a percentage of the agreed charter.
- Bunker
- Refers to the fuel utilized by a vessel, encompassing various types. The term originates from the compartments used for storing coal during the era when steam engines propelled ships.
- Capesize (vessel)
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A large bulk carrier primarily used for transporting bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore, and various grains. They could be in the order of 150,000 dwt and above.
- Charterer
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Is the person or company who charter (rents) a vessel or a space of the vessel cargo capacity for transporting either their cargo or the cargo of others (a cargo owner).
- Charter Party
- A contractual agreement between a shipowner and a charterer specifying the terms and conditions for the hire of a ship or space within it. Reference: Panayides (2018).
- Classification Society
- An organization/company that regulates the technical and operational standards of ship (Stopford, 2008) and issue a certificate to reflect compliance. The expression "The vessel is classified by ...." indicates that the vessel has undergone surveys and is certified by a classification society for compliance on techincal and operational standard as mandated by international conventions. The most important classification societies are members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS).
- Covenant
- A promise, agreement, or contract between two parties. In shipping debts is refers to the condition that the loanee must maintain such as to keep the debt conditions.
- Demurrage (Dem)
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Compensation paid by the charterer to the shipowner due to delays in loading and/or discharging beyond the agreed time in the charter party. Demurrage is typically set at a daily rate and paid prorata. For instance, if $10,000 is the rate per day, then a delay of 3 hours would cost \( 10,000\$ \times \frac{3}{24} = 1,250\$ \). The principle "once in demurrage, always in demurrage" applies once demurrage begins.
- Deadweight Tonnage- DWT
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Is the weight (tonnes) of how much a vessel could carry and includes cargo, bunkers, provisions, creww weights, ballast, lubricants and vessels constants. Doesnt include the weight of the ship (light weight).
- Draught (or Draft)
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The depth to which a ship is immersed in water. Depends on ship design and water density.
- Fixture
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Successful conclusion of the negotiations between shipowner and charterer, generally through shipbrokers, resulting in the charter of a ship.
- Flag state
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The primary legal authority governing the activities of merchant ships in which the ship is registered (Stopford, 2008). Their reulations is usually adhered to the flag state own jurisdictional law and implemented to their flagged vessels. The international laws that they pass through their local laws are developed by the participant of the flag states in treaties and conventions.
- Fouling (Biofouling)
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Biofouling is defined as undesirable biological accumulation of organisms (both by microorganisms and macroorganisms) on surfaces exposed to natural waters with other constituents.Toleti Subba Rao, in Water-Formed Deposits, 2022WE
- Forward
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The front part of the vessel.
- Gross Tonnage- GT
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It is not a measure of weight (unitless), but represents the ships internal volume. GT is an important measure for policy application and port/canal fees calculation.
- Holds
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Is the space wHere cargo is transported within a bulk vessel in a solid state (e.g. grain, coal, iron ore, etc).
- Laden
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Vessel full with cargo.
- Laycan (L/C)
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The Lay days cancelling period is a specified timeframe within which the shipowner must make the ship available for the charterer's use. If the ship arrives post this period, the charterer reserves the right to cancel the charter.
- Laytime
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The agreed-upon duration between the shipowner and the charterer or the bill of lading holder for completing loading or discharging operations, as cited by Panayides (2018). The counting of lay days usually begins after the tendering of a Notice of Readiness (NOR) from the vessel. Specific provisions in a charter party may interrupt this count. For instance, some charters might have a provision labeled Sunday, Holidays Excluded (SHEX) which halts the laytime count. Exceeding the agreed laytime may lead to demurrage payable by the charterer to the shipowner. Conversely, early completion might lead to dispatch payment from the shipowner to the charterer.
- Lay up
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Ship taken out of service temporarily for lack of cargo. The vessel may maintain minimum crew to reduce cost.
- Notice of Readiness (NOR)
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A commonly included clause in many charter agreements stipulating that the shipowner or master must notify the charterer when the vessel is ready and available for cargo operations. Depending on the charter, the issuance of NOR often marks the start of laytime counting.
- Scrapping
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Disposal of a vessel, involving cutting the vessel for extracting parts and/or materials to be recycled.
- Sundays and holidays included (SHINC)
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Charter party term that provides that Sundays and Holidays are included in the laytime calculation(Panayides,2018). SHEX stands for Sunday and Holidays excluded.
- Shipowner
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Is the person or company who owns a vessel.
- Spot Charter
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A type of contract (charter) agreed on a per voyage basis and paid by the charterer to the shipowner as \( $ \times tonne \).
- Suezmax
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A type of oil tanker vessel, with the maximum capacity to transit the Suez Canal in laden condition.
- Tanks
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Is the space where cargo is transported within a tanker vessel in a liquid state (e.g. oil, chemicals, products, etc).
- Time Charter
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A type of contract (charter) agreed on a per day basis and up to a final date. This charter is paid by the charterer to the shipowner as \( $ \times day \).
- Time Charter Equivalent (TCE)
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Represents the net income of a voyage on a per-day basis. It's calculated as \( \frac{\text{revenue} - \text{voyage costs}}{\text{round trip in days}} \).
- Trip charter
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A type of charter where the conditions of a time charter (i.e. voyage costs beared by charterer) holds. The charter is for one trip and is charged on a hire basis ($/day).
- Victualling
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Auxiliary services to the vessel when at visit to a port or in close proximity to the coast. Examples of victualling activities could be the supply of food and stores to the vessel.
- Very Large Crude Carriers - VLCC
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A type of oil tanker on the order of 200,000 to 320,000 DWT.
- Worldscale
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Is used to calculate freight rates for oil tankers and product carriers. The principle is that it uses a standard setup for easy calculation such that a shipowner would have the same net return irrespective of voyage performed by the Worldscale standard vessel (75k tonnes) at WS100.