Brokerage
Tramp ship owners and tramp ship charterers rely on brokers to find cargoes for their ships to carry. A broker understands international trade conditions, the movements of goods, market prices, and the availability of the owner’s ships.
The Baltic Exchange, in London, is the physical headquarters for tramp ship brokerage. The Baltic Exchange works like an organized market, and provides a meeting place for ship owners, brokers, and charterers. It also provides easy access to information on market fluctuations, and commodity prices to all the parties involved. Brokers can use it to quickly match a cargo to a ship or ship to a cargo depending on whom they are working for. A committee of owners, brokers, and charterers are elected to manage the exhange to ensure everyone’s interests are represented.With the speed of today's communications the floor of the Baltic Exchange is not nearly as populated as it once was, but the information and networking the exchange provides is still an asset to the tramp trade.
Read more about this topic: Tramp Trade