Demurrage management is how laytime and demurrage claims teams calculate, submit, negotiate and recover demurrage: the charge that applies when a vessel exceeds the laytime agreed in the charter party.
Done well, it protects revenue that would otherwise leak through missed entitlement, ambiguous clauses and time bars.
This guide sets out where that leakage happens, and how structured claims data turns a back-office process into commercial intelligence that sharpens the next fixture.
What's inside
Why 75% of analyst time goes to tasks that don't require their expertise, and what that costs the portfolio
The four structural points where recoverable entitlement goes unclaimed
How structured claims data changes the negotiation dynamic with counterparties
How structured claims data changes the negotiation dynamic with counterparties
"Marcura Claims helped us move from manual processing to a streamlined, insight-driven model. It has directly improved our decision-making and operational efficiency."
Kristian Helt, Director (Chartering), Pacific Basin
Get more insight from our laytime
and demurrage claims team
What is demurrage claims management?
Demurrage claims management is the process of calculating, submitting and negotiating demurrage: the fee charged when a vessel exceeds its agreed laytime at port. It covers document collection, SOF digitisation, laytime calculation, time-bar management and counterparty negotiation, and at volume is handled on a specialist laytime and demurrage platform
What is laytime?
Laytime is the period agreed in a charter party during which a shipowner allows a charterer to load or discharge cargo without additional charge. Time used beyond laytime triggers demurrage. For what the manual approach to tracking it really costs, see demurrage on spreadsheets versus software
How does structured claims data improve commercial decisions?
When every SOF event is captured and normalised, claims data reveals counterparty behaviour patterns, clause performance and port-level demurrage drivers. Chartering teams can use that to inform fixture negotiation, voyage cost estimates and charter party risk analysis, decisions that would otherwise rely on individual memory or industry averages. This is the basis for using claims data to sharpen future voyage estimates
What is a statement of facts (SOF) in shipping?
A statement of facts is a document recording the sequence of events during a vessel's port call — arrival, berthing, commencement of operations, completion and departure. It is the primary evidence source for laytime and demurrage calculations.
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