Laytime
Meaning
Laytime is the time the charterer is allowed, without paying extra, to load and discharge the cargo under a voyage charter.
Laytime explained
Under a voyage charter the owner earns freight for carrying the cargo, and the freight already pays for a certain amount of time in port. That allowance is laytime. On tankers it is usually agreed as a total number of hours for loading and discharging together, most commonly 72 hours, rather than as a separate allowance for each port.
Laytime only counts once a valid notice of readiness has been tendered and any notice time has run, and it stops for whatever the charter excludes: shifting between anchorage and berth, time lost because of the ship, or periods the parties agreed not to count. Once laytime is used up, the ship goes on demurrage and the charterer pays for every extra hour.
Example
An Aframax is fixed with 72 hours reversible laytime. Loading uses 30 hours and discharge 50 hours, so 80 hours are used: 8 hours over the allowance, paid at the agreed demurrage rate.
Watch out for
Most laytime disputes are not about arithmetic but about when the clock started: whether the NOR was valid, whether the ship was really ready, and whether waiting time counts.
Related terms
Demurrage
Demurrage is the agreed daily amount the charterer pays the owner for every day the ship is kept in port beyond the laytime allowed.
Notice of Readiness
A notice of readiness (NOR) is the master's formal notice that the ship has arrived and is ready in every respect to load or discharge.
Reversible laytime
Reversible laytime means the hours allowed for loading and discharging are added together, so time saved at one port can be used at the other.
Statement of facts
A statement of facts (SOF) is the agent's record of every event during a port call, from arrival and NOR to hoses off, used to calculate laytime.
Laytime statement
A laytime statement is the calculation that sets out laytime allowed, time used at each port, exceptions and the resulting demurrage or despatch.