Backhauling
Voyage estimates cover earnings of a vessel from discharge port to discharge port. Most estimates therefore assume that the earnings of a vessel are ‘zero’ for the ballast leg that the vessel sails on to reach the load port.
However a good estimator may sometimes get a vessel an employment contract for the ballast leg which, if contracted, could help increase a vessel’s earnings. This method, where the vessel loads cargo on the ballast leg, is called backhauling. However it must be noted that freight rates are normally low for cargoes sourced for the outward or ballast leg of the voyage.
The backhauling method will involve a detour to a load port and therefore it is important for the estimator to ensure that it is worth it for the vessel to deviate to load low freight cargoes, as one has to take into account the increase in a vessel’s operating costs to cater for extra days spent for loading, discharging and detours required to make both the load and discharge ports of the backhaul leg.
