LaycanDeskHandysize & Handymax Chartering
25–50,000 dwt geared ships for bagged cargo, steels, grains and minor bulks. Geared Handysize and Handymax tonnage for bagged salt, gypsum, basalt, rice and fertilizer, steel products, grains and minor bulks, worked on the Egypt–West Africa, Black Sea, Gulf–India and East Africa lanes.
Handysize bulkers run from roughly 25,000 to 40,000 dwt and Handymaxes from about 40,000 to 50,000 dwt. Almost all are geared, and that is what puts them into the trades the larger ships cannot serve: bagged cargo loaded by hook, steel products, small parcels of grain and fertilizer, and ports in West Africa, the Red Sea and the smaller Indian and Gulf harbours where draft or berth length rules out a Supramax. A Handysize can also split a cargo across several discharge ports in one voyage, which matters for bagged rice and fertilizer into coastal markets.
Bagged cargo is a Handysize specialty and it is priced on the loading and discharge rates far more than on distance: 1,000 tonnes a day of bags by hook is a different voyage from 3,000 tonnes a day of bulk by grab. When a charterer sends us a bagged stem we ask for the bag weight, the rates and whether the ship's cranes or shore gear will do the work, and we put those to owners with the cargo. Owners with geared Handysize tonnage opening in the East Med, Red Sea or Gulf are the positions we most often need.
Cargoes
- Bagged salt, gypsum, rice and fertilizer
- Steel products
- Grains in small lots
- Minor bulks and minerals
- Bagged cement and clinker
Lanes we work
- Egypt (Damietta, El Arish, Abu Qir) to West Africa
- Black Sea to the East Med
- Kandla to the Gulf and East Africa
- Turkey to Egypt and the Red Sea
Questions charterers and owners ask
Why does bagged cargo need a geared ship?
Most ports that receive bagged salt, rice or fertilizer in West Africa and the Red Sea have no shore cranes for break-bulk work, so the ship's own gear does the discharge. A gearless ship cannot work there at all, and a geared ship with slow or few cranes turns a ten-day discharge into twenty.
What decides the freight on a bagged Handysize voyage?
The loading and discharge rates and the laytime terms, more than the distance. Owners work out how many days the ship will sit in port at the stated rates and price the whole voyage on that. A stem that states the rates, the bag weight and who supplies the gear gets a real quote; one that does not gets a guess or nothing.
Do you handle part cargoes and multi-port discharge?
Yes. Handysize stems often discharge at two or three ports, and part cargoes can be combined when laycans and rotation fit. Tell us the full rotation and the quantity at each port and we price it as one voyage.
Which Handysize positions are you looking for?
Geared ships opening in the East Med, Black Sea, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, since that is where our bagged and steel stems load. Send name, IMO, dwt, gear, open port and dates and we put the ship on the board.