Breakbulk and Project Cargo: Why Planning Starts Before the Vessel Is Fixed

In breakbulk and project cargo, the fixture is not the beginning of the work. It is the moment when preparation that has already been done becomes binding. By the time a vessel is nominated, the cargo has been measured, the lift has been thought through, the berth has been checked and the discharge end has been looked at — or the fixture is resting on assumptions that will be corrected, at a cost, later.

This is the main practical difference between project chartering and bulk chartering. A parcel of wheat is described in three lines. A shipment of transformers, gantry sections, presses or harbour cranes is described in a set of documents, and the quality of that set determines the freight, the schedule and the number of owners willing to quote at all.

What the owner is actually being asked to price

When an owner receives a project enquiry, the question in front of them is not "can this ship carry this weight". Deadweight is rarely the constraint. The real questions are whether the units fit through the hatch, whether the tank top will take the load imposed by their footprint, whether the ship's gear can lift them at the radius where they have to land, how much space is lost to the shape of the cargo, and how many days the operation will take at each end.

Every one of those answers comes out of documents produced by the shipper. Where the documents are missing, the owner either declines or prices the uncertainty — and pricing uncertainty always costs more than removing it.

The document pack

A workable project enquiry usually carries five documents. They come from different people and they are needed at different moments.

1. Packing list

A line for every piece, with length, width, height, gross weight and the number of identical items. Not a total, and not a range. The packing list is the document a broker can act on immediately: it decides which ships are even worth approaching, and it is the basis of the stowage sketch. Where units are crated, the crated dimensions are the relevant ones, not the equipment dimensions.

2. Outline and general arrangement drawings

Dimensioned drawings for the larger units, showing the overall envelope, the footprint that will bear on the deck or tank top, and any projections that affect stowage. For heavy units the drawing also carries the marked lifting points and the position of the centre of gravity — without those the lift cannot be planned, and without the lift plan the ship cannot be committed.

3. Lifting arrangement

How the piece is to be picked up: by shackles at marked points, by slings under a designated section, with a spreader beam, or by a designated lifting frame supplied with the cargo. This determines the height taken up above the unit, which in turn determines whether the ship's crane has enough hook height at the required radius. Many heavy lifts fail on hook height rather than on capacity.

4. Method statement

A short description of the operation at each end: how the unit arrives at the quay, on what trailer, how it is lifted, where it lands on board, in what order. It is written by whoever will carry out the lift and it is what turns a set of dimensions into a schedule.

5. Cargo readiness and delivery schedule

When each piece will physically be at the port, and in what sequence. Laycan is agreed against this document. Cargo that is ready three weeks after the vessel is the most expensive mistake in project chartering, and it is almost always known about in advance.

What the vessel contributes

The other half of the pack comes from the ship. Once a vessel is proposed, the owner supplies the capacity plan, hatch dimensions, tank top and deck strengths, crane curves showing safe working load against radius, and the details of available lashing points. From these, a stowage and securing plan is prepared and, for heavier or unusual lifts, reviewed by an appointed surveyor before the operation starts.

Final lifting plans, stability calculations, securing arrangements and technical approvals remain the responsibility of the vessel's owners, the master and the appointed specialists. The broker's job is to make sure the information reaches them early enough to be useful.

The shore side is part of the shipment

A ship that suits the cargo can still be the wrong answer if the ports cannot work it. Before a vessel is fixed, both ends deserve the same check:

• berth length, permissible draft and air draft;
• quay bearing capacity where a heavy unit will be set down or where a mobile crane will stand;
• availability and capacity of shore cranes, and the cost of mobilising one if there is none;
• laydown and marshalling area, and how long cargo may stay on it;
• access for heavy road transport, including bridges, gradients and overhead lines on the inland route;
• local rules on night work, lifting operations and wind limits.

Wind is worth naming separately. Lifting operations stop at a stated wind speed, and in an exposed port that alone can decide the season in which a shipment is practical.

Where the plan usually slips

Three failures account for most of the trouble, and all three are information problems rather than operational ones.

Dimensions change after fixing. A unit is re-crated, a skid is added, a protective cover raises the height by two hundred millimetres — and the piece no longer passes the hatch coaming. The remedy is to fix against crated dimensions, confirmed in writing, with a tolerance stated.

The lift plan arrives late. Where the lifting arrangement is only produced once the vessel is alongside, the operation waits for an approval that could have been obtained weeks earlier. Berth time is the most expensive time in the voyage.

Cargo is not ready together. A vessel fixed for one shipment ends up waiting for the last four pieces. Either the laycan is set against real readiness, or the fixture carries a clear allocation of who pays for the waiting.

Who does what

Project shipments involve more parties than a bulk fixture, and the sequence matters more than the number:

• shipper or manufacturer — cargo data, drawings, packing, readiness dates;
• broker — screening suitable tonnage against the actual cargo, freight negotiation, charter-party terms, keeping information moving between the parties;
• owner and master — vessel data, stowage and securing plan, stability, the final decision on the lift;
• marine warranty or cargo surveyor — review and approval where required by the cargo or by the insurance;
• port and stevedores — equipment, labour, laydown, the actual operation;
• road and inland transport — delivery to the quay and onward from the discharge port, with route surveys where units are out of gauge.

A short pre-fixture checklist

• packing list with per-unit dimensions and weights, in crated condition;
• drawings for units above the standard envelope, with lifting points shown;
• intended lifting method and any equipment supplied with the cargo;
• total volume and the number of separate lifts;
• loading and discharging ports, with berth, draft and crane data;
• realistic cargo readiness dates;
• any project deadline the shipment must meet at the far end.

Seven answers, most of them already written down somewhere in the project file. Collected before the market is approached, they produce freight levels that hold. Collected afterwards, they produce revisions.

Kiev Shipping Ltd charters multipurpose, geared general cargo and heavy-lift tonnage for machinery, transformers, steel structures, port equipment, vehicles and other out-of-gauge cargo. We work on the cargo documentation with the shipper before approaching owners, because the enquiry is what the market actually prices.

Service overview: Project Cargo Services and Breakbulk and Project Cargo Services.

See also: Heavy Machinery Shipping by Sea: What to Check Before Fixing · Transformer Cargo Chartering · How to submit a chartering enquiry · more in Project Cargo.