Advisory

A Nordic client was moving a new industrial cargo by sea. They had evaluated destinations and routes internally and wanted an outside view. We assessed every realistic destination, built a voyage-by-voyage cost model, obtained live freight indications from owners, compared conventional and alternative propulsion and delivered an annualised cost per tonne for each route, with sensitivities. Every statement sourced. The cost model handed over as a working file.

Then the market. We identified the suitable owners, introduced them to the client, ran a structured questionnaire, received responses from five, and converted proposals written on different terms into a single like-for-like comparison against the client's own options.

Within the same work, a dedicated analysis of propulsion alternatives on a short Nordic route: vessel sizing against the volume to be moved, one large vessel against a two-vessel fleet that can absorb a breakdown and the difference between EU ETS neutrality and a FuelEU Maritime compliance surplus. It ended as a proposed charter structure with a purchase option that public funding could sit inside.

Then the follow-on: oversight of a shipowner's feasibility study, on the client's side of the table, and management of the client's shipping inquiry toward a letter of intent for a public funding application.

A large consultancy sends analysts who have read about chartering. We send someone who has fixed ships and managed fleets. Our numbers come from live owner indications, collected by a broker who can call those owners, not from a benchmark database. The person who sells the work does the work.

An independent consultant sees the market second hand. We run a broking desk and our own market intelligence, so we see position lists, open tonnage and freight every day. And we are a company with our own liability and continuity, not one person's letterhead.

The limits, for advisory work: no bench, one calendar, no global coverage. Northwestern Europe. Tanker, gas and specialised.