Project Cargo, Breakbulk and Dry Bulk Chartering by Kiev Shipping Ltd

Three words cover most of what moves by sea outside a container: dry bulk, breakbulk and project cargo. They are not three names for the same trade. Each one is measured differently, each one eliminates ships for different reasons, and an enquiry written in the vocabulary of the wrong sector gets a slow answer.

This page is the starting point: how to tell which sector a cargo belongs to, what decides the vessel in each, and where the detail on each subject sits.

Which sector is this cargo in?

Cargoes at the boundary are common and the classification is not sacred: bagged goods and steel are usually treated as breakbulk, machinery that happens to be small enough is quoted as breakbulk, and a shipment of vehicles can be worked either way. What matters is describing the cargo the way the sector does, because that determines how quickly the market can answer.

Dry bulk

Grain, oilseed meals, fertilizers, coal, ores, cement, clinker, gypsum, salt, scrap. Poured into the hold and discharged by grab, spout or suction.

The vessel is decided by three numbers and one document: the permissible draft at the most restricted berth, the stowage factor of the commodity, the parcel size, and — for anything that may liquefy or self-heat — the cargo declaration under the IMSBC Code. Deadweight is what remains after those four have had their say.

• Bulk Cargo Chartering: Vessel Sizes, Draft and Port Restrictions — the size classes, geared against gearless, and how draft converts into tonnes;
• Dry Bulk Cargo: Why Cargo Characteristics Matter — IMSBC groups, moisture, hold cleanliness, ventilation;
• Stowage Factor and Cargo Reference — indicative figures with a worked example;
• Grain Cargo Chartering — the Grain Code, test weight, fumigation and draft surveys.

Service page: Dry Bulk Cargo Chartering.

Breakbulk

Steel coils, billets, rebar, pipes, bagged cargo, big bags, palletised goods, vehicles, crated equipment. Loaded piece by piece, and normally lifted by the ship's own gear.

Here the constraint moves from weight to shape. Hatch openings, hold dimensions, the number of hooks and the productivity they achieve decide both whether the cargo fits and how long the ship stays alongside — and port time, not freight, is usually what separates two offers.

• Why the Freight Rate Is Not Enough — two offers on one cargo, followed through to the end of the voyage;
• Heavy Machinery Shipping by Sea — dimensions as shipped, preparation, lashing and the pre-fixture checklist;
• Electric Bus Shipping from China to Europe — Ro-Ro, breakbulk or a chartered vessel, compared.

Service page: Breakbulk Cargo Chartering.

Project cargo

Transformers, generators, presses, port cranes, steel structures, modules, out-of-gauge equipment. Few pieces, each one planned individually.

Deadweight is almost never the constraint. What decides the ship is the crane curve at the radius the lift needs, the hook height available above the unit, the strength of the deck or tank top where it will stand, and whether the hatch clears it. On shore, the quay's bearing capacity and the road route to the site decide the ports — and often decide them differently from what the map suggests.

• Why Planning Starts Before the Vessel Is Fixed — the document pack and who produces each part of it;
• Transformer Cargo Chartering — concentrated loads, impact recorders, lifting and ports.

Service pages: Project Cargo Chartering and Electric Buses and Machinery.

Liquid bulk

Selected clean and dirty petroleum products and liquid chemical cargoes. A different discipline again: the tank coating, the ship's certificate of fitness, her last three cargoes and the number of segregated systems eliminate candidates long before price is discussed, and the nominated vessel still has to be approved by the receiver or the terminal.

• Tanker Chartering: Vessel Selection for CPP, DPP and Liquid Chemical Cargoes;
• What Information Is Needed Before Requesting Freight.

Service page: Tanker Chartering and Brokerage.

What does not change between sectors

The commercial sequence is the same whatever is being carried: enquiry, market screening, freight indication, firm offer, negotiation on main terms, subjects, recap, charter party, voyage, laytime settlement. What changes is how much has to be known before each step can be taken — three lines for a bulk parcel, a document pack for a transformer.

• Ship Chartering: From Enquiry to Fixture — the stages and how long each takes;
• Freight Indication vs Firm Freight Offer — what each one commits, and what has to be settled first.

For shipowners the same market is approached from the other side — employment, voyage economics and commercial management: Voyage Estimation Before Fixing a Cargo, How Shipowners Can Improve Vessel Employment, Commercial Ship Management for Shipowners.

Where we work

Kiev Shipping Ltd charters out of Asia — China, South Korea, Japan, India and the surrounding markets — to Europe, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and West Africa, and within the Asian trades themselves. Loading ports, discharge ranges and the routes we work regularly are set out on Ports and Routes, and completed shipments are listed in the chartering portfolio.

An independent broker

Kiev Shipping Ltd has no fleet of its own. That is a structural point rather than a slogan: with no ship to employ, the vessel proposed for a cargo is the one that suits the cargo, and where the honest answer is that the shipment should move by liner service or by container instead, that is the answer given.

The company has worked in ship chartering, maritime brokerage and commercial ship management since 2000, and has fixed more than 350 voyages. Parcels typically run from 3,000 to 50,000 tonnes in dry bulk, and from a single unit to a full shipload in project and breakbulk.

To start: send a chartering enquiry, or see what to include for each cargo type on the chartering services page.