Willem Dijkhuis is a special advisor at Seaber. He has two decades’ experience in shipping and trading, most recently serving as chartering & freight trading lead at Cargill for 14 years.

In our blog post from April, Jean-Guy discussed how Excel continues to play a crucial role in various industries, including shipping, and how this undermines efforts to become a data-driven organization, leaving you vulnerable to costly errors. In freight trading, this is the same: I used many different (non-linked) Excel files and had to gather my information from a variety of different sources. You do the best you can with what you have, and you believe that you are maximizing your output. But, there is a way to take your results to the next level.  

Let me share with you what the work of a freight trader looks like when using Seaber.   

At the start of every trading day, the market opens and I am going through the daily morning routine. Vessel operators are double-checking the vessel prospects with the shipowners. Cargoes are uploaded and updated automatically from various data sources into Seaber. I am in close contact with my customers to make sure I have reliable information regarding the cargo-readiness. The voyage management system (VMS) that I use is linked with Seaber, so any change in vessel prospects is automatically updated. The market count for cargoes and ships is complete, and the supply and demand (S&D) outlook is clear. I have conviction. The game plan is in my head. I am on the ball and ready to execute when market opportunities arise.    

Market opportunities start rolling in. Via the email parser, spot market cargoes and ship positions are identified and automatically uploaded into Seaber. Historical data from various data sources provides me with accurate and up-to-date input for my TCE calculations, so I can quickly assess the risk versus reward of the opportunity. Historical port costs and port call durations are at my disposal for quick assessment. Of course, with the option to easily overwrite as I see fit.  

Shall I take a spot cargo on my time charter ship or fix in a spot voyage against it? How does that impact my cashbook as a whole? Seaber scenario analysis helps me with that decision process. In my cashbook, I can drag and drop cargoes and ship positions into a position/laycan that looks profitable. Seaber calculates the change in PnL (and other metrics) for the whole cashbook. I create multiple scenarios and compare them for the best outcome.

Not my favorite, but nevertheless a very important part of the job, is doing my voyage finalizations. I compare the estimated cost at the moment of selling with the actual cost that occurred during the execution of the voyage. This tells me how accurate the data input for my decision was at the moment of selling. In other words, what was the quality of my decision-making.

The action-filled day is coming to an end. I have taken two ships on subs and I am on subs for two cargoes. Just as I am closing up, I receive confirmation by email that the customer has lifted subs, so we are clean fixed! After I have passed the necessary recaps and confirmation emails to the admin team, I check my updated long/short position. Ready to hit the ground running again tomorrow, I go home with a smile.

How does your day look like as a freight trader? What would you need to make your day-to-day activities easier? Let’s discuss.