Live vessel movement
Laden tonnage by destination, fleet composition in transit, and which flags are heading north or south.
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How to read this board
Laden, bound for
A count of loaded vessels heading for a port — not a count of ships in it, and not a forecast of arrivals. Cargo already committed to a destination is a firmer signal than traffic near a coastline: a vessel that has loaded and declared a destination has made a commercial decision. When a port climbs this table, more loaded tonnage has chosen it than the day before, which tends to precede berth pressure, congestion and demurrage rather than follow it.
Which flags are heading north or south
This is direction of travel, not destination. A flag state's balance between northbound and southbound traffic describes the shape of its fleet's business: heavily one-directional movement usually means a trade with a loading region at one end and a discharge region at the other, while an even split suggests a fleet working a circuit. Direction is derived from a vessel's own movement over time, which is why a single position report cannot produce it.
Why some classes show a laden figure and others show —
Laden state is inferred from draught — how deeply a vessel is sitting. That separation is clean for bulk carriers, crude tankers and chemical tankers, which ballast down hard and so sit markedly deeper loaded than empty. For container ships, ro-ro, general cargo, gas carriers and reefers the same reading over- or under-counts, because draught tracks how they are stowed far more loosely. Those classes show — rather than a number: the honest answer is that the measure does not apply to them, not that the ships are empty.
New entrants and rank movement
Arrows compare today's standing against yesterday's. A port marked new was not on the board at all a day ago, which is the more interesting event of the two: an established port gaining a place is a shift in degree, while a port appearing from nowhere usually means cargo has been redirected — a diversion around a disruption, a strike, a closure, or a sudden price move at a competing terminal.
Why vessel class matters
A count of ships treats a products tanker and a car carrier as the same event. They are not: they serve different customers, respond to different prices, and imply different cargo. Reading movement by class separates a fuel trade from a vehicle trade from a grain trade, so a rise in transit volume can be attributed to a market rather than left as an undifferentiated total.