One system for the desk that charters, employs and answers for the outcome
CapeSize is built around commercial control, because commercial control is what a trader-operator actually holds. One cargo travels from a broker email to a closed claim, and the numbers reconcile at every step along the way.
A trader-operator makes money in three places
The three are routinely confused with each other. Separating them is the point of the system.
Trading margin
The spread
What the tonnage cost to take in against what the employment earned. Won or lost at the moment of fixing.
Trade deskOperational alpha
The execution
Speed, bunker buying, port time, routing. Won or lost over the following six weeks, by the operator.
Operator deskRecovery
The claims book
Demurrage earned, demurrage paid, performance and off hire. Won or lost on documents and deadlines.
Operator deskWhy the separation matters
A voyage that made money because the market moved is not a well-executed voyage. A voyage that lost money on a bad port call is not a bad fixture. Today that attribution is an argument between two desks. In CapeSize it is a calculation, and the same number is on both screens.
- Every bar resolves to the fixture, the port call or the claim behind it.
- On an agency voyage the same chart resolves to a single commission bar, because capacity is a field rather than an assumption.
- Attribution flows back into the next estimate, so a corrected assumption is worth more than a corrected report.
One relet voyage, four separately owned drivers, one net number
What changes is who owns the result
With ownership outsourced and tonnage dedicated long term, a vessel costs the desk one daily number whichever way it is held. The capacity it trades in decides who the result belongs to.
Principal, third-party charter
Hire payable to an outside owner. Trading limits, cargo exclusions and a redelivery window bind what can be sold. Off hire and underperformance are recoverable from a counterparty.
Principal, internal charter
The owning entity charters to the desk. The same fields and the same clauses, with a wider envelope, and recourse settles inside the group.
Agent for the owning entity
No hire line at all. The owning entity contracts and carries the voyage, the desk earns a commission, and the result belongs to the owner rather than to the book.
No crewing, no planned maintenance, no class administration, no spares, no defect management, no drydock project management. A drydock appears as one thing only, a date range in which the vessel cannot earn.
This is the reason the product stays small enough to be finished, and it keeps CapeSize out of a category fight with vendors selling technical management modules the desk will not use.
What the system models, and what it only receives
A product that describes everything is not a version one. The line is drawn here, in writing.
| Domain | Inside CapeSize | Outside, integrated by interface only |
|---|---|---|
| The vessel | Particulars, description as warranted in the charter above it, performance curve, position, open date, employment capacity. | Crewing, maintenance, class and statutory certification, defect management, spares. A certificate expiry arrives as a date, not a workflow. |
| Availability | Employment schedule, laycan windows, next open, drydock as a commercial blackout window. | Drydock scope, yard selection, repair planning, superintendency. |
| The trade | Cargo orders, tonnage lists, estimates, negotiation, fixture, recap, charter party terms, the in and out chain. | Nothing. This is the core. |
| The voyage | Orders, routing, bunkers, port calls, events, documents, costs, running result. | Navigation and safety decisions, which stay with the Master and the technical manager. |
| The money | Freight and hire invoicing, disbursement control, claims, accruals, voyage result. | Statutory accounts, treasury execution, payroll. |
Technical ship management is outsourced and sits outside the perimeter by design. A certificate expiry arrives as a date, not as a workflow.
A day ranked by money at risk
Fifteen live voyages produce more email than any operator can read in arrival order. The worklist is ordered by what is about to cost money, and every item carries the evidence that put it there.
- Exceptions are raised while they can still be corrected.
- A data gap is reported as a gap rather than presented as a conflict.
- Alert suppression is aggressive, and the dismissal rate is itself monitored.
Fifteen live voyages, ranked by money at risk
- High
V-118Kamsarmax, 82k
Demurrage time bar in 9 days, pack missing two documents
- High
V-121Capesize, 180k
Third early arrival on this vessel, 33 hours absorbed at anchorage
- Medium
V-104Panamax, 76k
Final port account exceeds proforma by a material margin
- Medium
V-109Supramax, 58k
Statement of facts disagrees with position data on commencement
- Watch
V-112Kamsarmax, 82k
Hold cleanliness inspection not yet recorded, notice tendered
Suppression is aggressive, and the dismissal rate is itself monitored. A list nobody trusts gets ignored, which removes the capability rather than the noise.
The cost stack changed in 2026
An estimate built on the lines that were sufficient three years ago is now systematically wrong on any European trade.
Which lines a dry bulk estimate has to carry now
Full phase-in
The European emissions trading scheme reached full phase-in for shipping in 2026 and now covers methane and nitrous oxide alongside carbon dioxide. The allowance obligation is no longer discounted.
Scope factor per leg
A voyage between a European and a non-European port carries a partial scope. An intra-European voyage and time at berth carry full scope. The estimate applies the factor per leg rather than per voyage.
Fuel intensity
The European fuel intensity regime prices the upstream footprint rather than only what burns in the engine, which changes how grades rank against a simple price per tonne comparison.
What ships, what waits
Version one is done when one cargo runs end to end and the result agrees with finance without a spreadsheet in the middle. One voyage, correct. Then twenty. Then the book.
Ships first
- Market signal capture from email
- Voyage estimate with live inputs
- Negotiation and fixture capture
- In and out charter chain
- Voyage execution and port calls
- Bunker planning and stem
- Early arrival detection and time ledger
- Laytime, demurrage and time bars
- Voyage result and accrual
Sequenced behind the layer it depends on
- Quote guidance from history
- Repeat pattern escalation
- COA and period contract portfolio
- Paper position and mark to market
- Recap to form reconciler
None of these is dismissed. A position book built on voyage results nobody trusts is worse than no position book, because it produces a number the desk will act on.
One cargo, from a broker email to a closed claim
The spine is nine steps. Each one names what the desk does, what the system has to get right, and the specific dry bulk failure that makes the step worth building rather than assuming.