What do corn, coffee, the Venezuelan bolívar, and shipping markets share? According to Alex Stuart-Grumbar, head of maritime data products at Shipfix, part of the Veson Nautical empire, the answer is that they all bear resemblance to the theoretical perfect competition model. “In shipping markets,” he explains, “numerous buyers and sellers engage in transactions where the product is homogenous. Actors act as price takers, with rates in various basins influenced by the continuously shifting regional imbalances between cargo volumes and available ship capacity.” Yet, according to Stuart-Grumbar, two factors of the perfectly competitive model fail to reconcile with the fundamental economic assumption ‘Ceteris Paribus’ (all other things being equal): first, every cargo is different and no vessels are identical, which leads to a need for detailed information, and secondly, there are the barriers in the flow of information between market participants. “Information remains opaque and asymmetrical among shipping participants regarding the timing and locations of cargo loading,ship availability,” Stuart-Grumbar explains. In the era of digitalisation and big data, Stuart-Grumbar argues that industry participants increasingly recognise the significance of harnessing new alternative datasets to gain a better understanding of forward market dynamics. Shipfix, a Veson Nautical Solution, has introduced a market dataset, derived from anonymised and aggregated commercial circulars exchanged within the Shipfix community. This community-driven model seeks to democratise access to forward demand and supply curves while safeguarding sensitive commercial market data. Chartering managers can now visualise this market data in context through the new Shipfix Freight Analytics module, providing instant access to demand, supply, and price curves derived from forward cargo and tonnage counts within loading and ballast basins. The more than 500 delegates attending Geneva Dry next month will be able to see the system live as Veson Nautical is exhibiting at the show. The cargo order data serves as a forward-looking indicator for the demand for seaborne transportation in specific loading areas. Shipfix has mapped ballast areas relevant to each load area, indicating the number of ships available for employment over a forward period. This graph depicts panamax cargo orders loading out of Southeast Asia over a 15-day forward period, juxtaposed with the P5 Baltic route price. Note the strong correlation: as cargo orders surge, the benchmark tends to follow the upward trend, illustrating a clear positive relationship. Why is relying solely on AIS data no longer sufficient to find a market edge? Stuart-Grumbar reckons he has the answer to this. On the supply side, according to the Shipfix executive, utilising AIS data to estimate the number of ballasters sailing to the loading area fails to provide an accurate depiction of the supply situation, as it cannot discern which vessels have already been fixed. Furthermore, he points out that delays in the ship crews updating the AIS vessel destination often lead to inaccurate data, rendering it unable to present a clear picture. In contrast, Shipfix tonnage data identifies when and where the vast majority of ships on the water will next be available for employment. On the demand side, Stuart-Grumbar says AIS-based trade flows also present their limitations. These flows are constructed based on companies labelling berths and termin