Tradewinds: How Extraordinary is Your Shipbroker?

“To the editor: There is no doubt that shipping is a dynamic and fascinating industry and as shipbrokers we are lucky and most grateful to be part of it. I am reminded of a short chapter in my early mentor Erling Naess’s “Autobiography of a Shipping Man” (Seatrade, 1977) entitled: “Shipbrokers: Parasites or Catalysts”. Please note that the book was written during the depressed period of the mid-1970s, after the great shipping boom in the early part of that decade. Let me quote two paragraphs which, I believe, may bring the issue of shipbrokers’ compensation into better perspective: “It has been said that the shipbroker’s commission, generally 1.25%, is too high… When the freight markets are high it cannot be denied that the 1.25% is generous. It does not generally involve more work to negotiate the charter for a 250,000-dwt tanker than for one of 15,000 dwt. The commission of 1.25% on a five-year time charter of a 250,000-dwt tanker in a booming market is a small fortune. But the shipbroker works on a ‘no cure, no pay’ basis, spending endless hours and incurring expenses on a certain charter or contract often to find that the owner or charterer diverts the business somewhere else or decides not to act. The life of a shipbroker is a life of heartbreaks and frustrations. It is therefore only fair that when markets are good he should reap some benefit. “Looking back on over 40 years as a shipowner I bear no grudge against the shipbroking fraternity. I have nothing but praise for those with whom I worked. Without them the Naess Group would not have been developed into what it became.” The hand that has been dealt by fate, to which you refer, is only a question of how long one has been a shipbroker and whether he has experienced the full boom-and-bust cycle. For those who have survived and flourished, do not underestimate their ingenuity, perseverance, patience and the relationships they have nurtured over many years. Michael D Tusiani, Poten & Partners, New York.”