Scrap and finished steel form one of the steadiest round voyages in European short-sea shipping: scrap moves from North-West Europe towards the Mediterranean and Turkey, finished steel comes back north. Each direction has its own pitfalls – one at loading, the other in stowage.
Typical cargoes
- Steel scrap in bulk, bundles and shredded
- Coils, plate, slabs and billets
- Rebar, beams, pipes and long products
- Pig iron and ferro-alloys
What matters
- Grab and magnet handling works the tank top and hold sides hard – permissible tank top loading is not a formality, it is the criterion.
- Coils need dunnage, chocks and a stowage plan that spreads the point load across the frames.
- Long products and beams: plan lashing and access for discharge, otherwise laytime becomes expensive.
- For scrap, clarify origin, density and contaminants before the fixture.
The round voyage is the lever: combine scrap southbound and steel northbound in one plan and you sail almost no empty legs – that shows up in the rate more than any single negotiation.
Frequently asked
Why is tank top loading so decisive for scrap?
Scrap is loaded by grab or magnet and lands on the hold floor in concentrated drops. If the load exceeds the permissible value, the tank top can deform – expensive damage that takes a long time to repair. We therefore check vessel data against cargo density before fixing.
Do you run scrap and finished steel as a round voyage?
Wherever the programmes allow, yes. Scrap towards the Mediterranean and Turkey and finished steel back to North-West Europe complement each other well, because volumes and trading area match. The round voyage cuts the ballast share and so feeds directly into the rate.
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