Course 18 of 20 · Freight and Shipping Desk Academy

Vessel Positioning, Relets & Portfolios

Stage E, Portfolio, disruption and integrated practice. Level 9 of 10.

Positioning controlled tonnage and reletting surplus capacity across a portfolio of voyage, period and contract commitments held at once.

120 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 09, Course 10, Course 15

Enrol or enquire See the 120 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

12 modules · 120 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Controlled Tonnage Book Ch 1-10
  1. The Quarter Three Ships Earned Nothing Waiting For
  2. What Counts as Controlled Tonnage and What Only Looks Like It
  3. Open Date and Open Port: The Two Coordinates of a Ship's Position
  4. The Disponent Owner's Two-Sided Book
  5. Long Tonnage, Short Tonnage and the Balance in Vessel Days
  6. Why Reletting Exists at All
  7. The Positioning Desk's Day
  8. Who Reads the Tonnage Position and What Each One Does With It
  9. The Vocabulary a Tonnage List Uses Without Explaining It
  10. What You Are Assumed to Bring Into This Material
M1 The Tonnage Position on One Grid Ch 11-21
  1. Choosing the Unit the Whole Fleet Converts Into
  2. Choosing the Time Buckets a Tonnage Position Is Held In
  3. Loading an Owned Ship Into the Position
  4. Loading a Chartered-In Period Ship Into the Position
  5. Loading a Voyage Commitment Into the Position
  6. Loading a Lifting Programme Into the Position
  7. Loading a Relet Out Into the Position
  8. Firm, Optional and Expected Tonnage
  9. The As-At Stamp on a Position That Moves With Every Noon Report
  10. Reconciling the Tonnage Position Back to the Fixture Register
  11. One Tonnage Position Built From Scratch, Worked
M2 Positioning a Ship That Is Coming Open Ch 22-31
  1. The Itinerary as the Thing You Are Actually Deciding
  2. Where to Put a Ship Open and Why It Is Not the Nearest Port
  3. The Ballast Leg as an Investment Rather Than a Cost
  4. Ballast Bonus, Repositioning Allowance and Who Ends Up Paying for Empty Steaming
  5. Reading a Laycan Window as a Positioning Constraint
  6. Positioning Into a Market You Expect to Firm
  7. Positioning Out of a Region You Expect to Soften
  8. The Cost of Being Early and the Cost of Being Late
  9. Waiting as a Deliberate Position
  10. One Ship Positioned Three Ways From a Single Open Port, Compared
M3 Allocating Cargo Across Controlled Ships Ch 32-41
  1. The Allocation Decision Stated Properly
  2. Why the Cheapest Ship for This Cargo Is Often the Wrong One
  3. The Opportunity Cost of the Next Cargo That Ship Could Have Lifted
  4. Marginal Contribution Against Average Return Per Ship
  5. Triangulation and the Voyage That Pays for the One Before It
  6. Backhaul Cargo and the Value of Not Ballasting Home
  7. Pairing Two Unattractive Voyages Into One Acceptable Round
  8. When to Refuse a Cargo That Shows a Profit
  9. Allocating Under a Draught or Berth Restriction You Cannot Change
  10. Five Ships Allocated Across Seven Cargoes, Worked
M4 Reletting Surplus Capacity Ch 42-52
  1. What a Relet Is and What the Operator Is Actually Selling
  2. The Relet Decision Against Fixing the Ship Yourself
  3. Pricing a Relet Off the Charter You Already Pay
  4. Reletting a Period Ship for a Single Voyage
  5. Reletting a Period Ship for a Shorter Period
  6. Selling Space Rather Than the Whole Ship
  7. Taking Capacity In to Cover a Commitment You Cannot Serve
  8. The Chain of Charterers and Where Each Obligation Stops
  9. The Disponent Owner Squeezed Between Head and Sub Charter
  10. Passing a Performance Shortfall Up and Down the Chain
  11. A Surplus Period Ship Relet Three Ways, Compared
M5 Four Ways to Meet the Same Tonnage Requirement Ch 53-61
  1. The Requirement Stated Before Any Route Is Chosen
  2. Covering It by Fixing a Single Voyage
  3. Covering It by Taking Period Tonnage
  4. Covering It From Tonnage Already Under Control
  5. Covering It on Paper and Leaving the Ship Unfixed
  6. Reducing All Four Routes to One Comparable Number
  7. The Obligation Each Route Creates
  8. The Residual Each Route Leaves Behind
  9. One Requirement Covered Four Ways, Side by Side
M6 The Period and Spot Balance of the Book Ch 62-71
  1. How Much of a Fleet Should Sit on Period at All
  2. The Coverage Ratio Measured in Vessel Days
  3. Laddering Redelivery Dates Across the Fleet
  4. Optional Periods and Extensions Held Inside the Book
  5. Declaring or Dropping an Extension as a Fleet Decision
  6. Choosing Period Length Against the Curve You Were Handed
  7. The Cost of Being Structurally Long Tonnage
  8. The Cost of Being Structurally Short Tonnage
  9. Rebalancing a Book That Drifted Long Without Anyone Deciding
  10. A Fleet Rebalanced Over Two Quarters, Worked
M7 Servicing Contract Commitments From the Fleet Ch 72-81
  1. A Lifting Programme Seen From the Tonnage Side
  2. Reading a Nomination Against the Ships Actually Available
  3. Spread Used as Room to Position Rather Than a Contract Right
  4. Tolerance Used to Fit the Ship You Happen to Have
  5. The Shortfall Decision When No Controlled Ship Fits
  6. Buying In a Ship at a Loss to Protect a Contract
  7. Stacking Several Contracts on One Ship's Programme
  8. Two Contracts Wanting the Same Week
  9. Reserving Tonnage Against a Lifting That May Never Come
  10. One Lifting Programme Serviced Across a Quarter, Worked
M8 Measuring What the Portfolio Earned Ch 82-91
  1. Portfolio Time-Charter Equivalent as One Blended Number
  2. Why a Fleet Average Hides the Ship That Lost Money
  3. Attributing Result to the Ship, the Route and the Decision
  4. Separating Market Result From Positioning Result
  5. Valuing Open Tonnage That Is Still Unfixed
  6. Marking the Tonnage Book to the Market
  7. Marking a Relet Against Marking the Charter Beneath It
  8. The Marginal Worth of One More Ship in the Fleet
  9. The Position Pack and the Three Pages It Contains
  10. A Quarter's Portfolio Result Decomposed, Worked
M9 Aggregate Exposure Across the Whole Book Ch 92-101
  1. Net Tonnage Exposure Rather Than Exposure Per Ship
  2. Concentration by Route and the Day It Starts to Matter
  3. Counterparty Concentration Across Both Sides of the Book
  4. Correlated Open Dates and the Week Four Ships Come Free
  5. Sizing a Paper Overlay Against the Aggregate, Not the Voyage
  6. Limits a Positioning Desk Is Actually Run Under
  7. The Cash a Tonnage Position Consumes Before It Earns
  8. Stress-Testing the Book Against a Market That Halves
  9. Stress-Testing the Book Against a Market That Doubles
  10. An Aggregate Exposure Report Read and Acted On, Worked
M10 Constraints the Position Must Respect Ch 102-110
  1. Drydock and Survey Windows Inside the Positioning Plan
  2. Off-Hire Risk as a Hole in the Position
  3. Idle Days No Decision Can Remove
  4. Vetting and Approval Narrowing Where a Ship Can Trade
  5. Crew Change, Bunkering and Store Calls Inside the Itinerary
  6. Canal and Chokepoint Routing as a Positioning Choice
  7. Speed Chosen for the Fleet Rather Than the Voyage
  8. The Emissions Constraint on Where and How Fast You Position
  9. Approvals and Mandates That Slow a Positioning Decision
M11 The Whole Capability on One Book Ch 111-120
  1. The Operator, the Fleet and the Commitments, Set Up
  2. A Worked Portfolio Decision, Part One: The Position as Found
  3. A Worked Portfolio Decision, Part Two: Positioning the Open Ships
  4. A Worked Portfolio Decision, Part Three: Reletting the Surplus
  5. A Worked Portfolio Decision, Part Four: Covering the Contract Month
  6. A Worked Portfolio Decision, Part Five: The Result Defended
  7. The Same Fleet Run With Half the Tonnage Under Control
  8. Where Positioning Judgement Beat the Optimiser
  9. What Positioning and Reletting Cannot Do
  10. Handing the Book Over and What Comes Next

The brochure gives each of these 120 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 18 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Freight and Shipping Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway