Shipping Acronyms Explained

Common shipping and chartering acronyms explained with real examples from fixture emails.

Overview

Why shipping uses acronyms

Shipping communication is optimized for speed. Acronyms allow brokers and operators to compress complex commercial information into a single line, but this makes emails difficult to interpret for newcomers.

Key Terms

APS (Arrival Pilot Station)

Vessel is considered arrived when reaching the pilot station at the load port.

NOR (Notice of Readiness)

Formal notice that vessel is ready to load or discharge.

ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)

Projected arrival time at a port.

ETD (Estimated Time of Departure)

Projected departure time from a port.

CPP (Clean Petroleum Products)

Refined petroleum cargo such as gasoline or diesel.

DPP (Dirty Petroleum Products)

Crude oil or heavy fuel cargo.

Related pages

Try ShipSense on a real fixture line

Paste a shipping email line or use one of our Singapore-market examples to see how ShipSense converts unstructured text into structured vessel, cargo, route and rate data.

Quick examples

No account needed to test the parser.

MV PACIFIC STAR / 58kdwt / del Singapore prompt / redely N China / 50k mt coal / $13,500 pd

MT ASIA ENERGY / 105kdwt / del AGulf / redely Singapore / cpp / ws 120

MV STRAITS VOYAGER / 63kdwt / del Singapore-Jakarta range / redely Vietnam / 55k mt grains / $14,200 pd