Timing Spot Cargoes: When to Quote?

Charter small tankers in Europe? How far ahead of laycan do your peers got to market to find spot tonnage?

The answer? It depends. And one factor seems to make quite a difference: location.

In the second post of our series on the European small tanker market, we used Precise data to map how many days before laycan spot cargoes are first quoted.

Each color shows the average lead time between quote and loading date. The darker the color, the closer to laycan the cargo comes to market.

We tracked 3000+ spot stems under 25 kt (CPP, chemicals and biofuels). On average, a Baltic stem reaches the market 17.5 days before laycan, against 9.0 days for ARA. (95% confidence interval of the mean: Baltics 15.4–19.6; ARA 8.2–9.8). Even within the Mediterranean, timing varies widely.

Local market dynamics seem to shape fixing windows more than many would expect. At first glance, it’s tempting to conclude that the Baltic is simply a slower, more planned market, where charterers like to line up tonnage well ahead. The data tells a more nuanced story, and we’ll dig into it in a third post on this topic.

Curious how you compare with your peers when it comes to fixture timing? Get in touch, we’d be happy to share more detailed insights from Precise.

Methodology:

Based on 3,000+ deduplicated spot stems (up to 25,000 tonnes) quoted across the UKC, Baltics and Mediterranean over the past 12 months, covering CPP, chemicals and biofuels.

Our analysis covers 27 coastal stretches encompassing major European oil and gas loading ports, spanning a combined 14,213 km of coastline.

Map colors reflect the average number of days between cargo quoting and laycan start at each loading location.

The takeaway: Fixing windows differ sharply between regions, but a regional average can hide what really sets the timing. More on that in our next post.