subject: All that you need to know about shipping broker! [print this page] The shipping broker can often end up being the unknown hero behind the modern shipping industry. Intelligence, wisdom, and more than a decent helping of social skills are needed in order to get a broker business that stands on its own two feet up and running successfully. It can take quite a few unsolicited calls and hearing a great deal of "no's before you finally hear a "yes." So, what is a shipping broker?
Shipping broker perform a much needed role in the international shipping industry. Their job is to connect the people who own ships to the people who need to have their cargo transported from one place to another via ship. In addition, ship broking is also the process of selling ships between two different shipping companies. Most ship broking can be divided into one of four categories.
The first in the list of shipping broker is sale and purchase, or S&P. An S&P broker is in charge of buying and selling ships. The ships may be bought from a shipping company, or a new boat from a boat manufacturer. An S&P broker will discuss marketing trends, sales, give advice on finances, and calculate the earnings for a ship-owner. They will try to find employment opportunities for the ships that need them. They help to negotiate the sale of ships between buyer and seller, and sometimes try to sell a ship to the scrap yard.
The second thing a broker might do is dry cargo broking. Dry cargo brokers either work for a shipping company, trying to find cargo to be transported, or work for a company that needs to transport cargo, helping them find the best deal on shipping. They are likely to use large databases that contain information about where ships are, who sells what service at what cost, and where the markets are heading so that they can get the best deal for their client.
Third is tanker broking, in which tankers of oil, gas, and chemicals are chartered. The skill set needed to sell tanker services is entirely different from that needed for selling dry cargo space. Unlike with dry cargo, the rate for crude oil transport is determined each year to be a single universal rate, which changes the sales dynamic drastically.
Finally, the last type of shipping broker is container broking, which specializes in the chartering of container ships. Container ships are cargo ships that carry all cargo on truck-sized containers.
