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From the Brig

performing owners. A bona fide casualties, detentions or prolonged idle Fleets with vessels acquired at the
manager is no guarantee that periods will paint a picture of a fleet peak of the market will struggle to

payments will be made in a timely under financial strain that will cover the financial costs and operating
fashion or at all.
inevitably lead to payment delay or expenses, given current charter rates.

default. Similarly, vessels trading in No one factor is determinative, but The trade press reports on vessel
parts of the world where effective legal by considering such things as age, vessel sales and purchases, periodic financial

action is impossible can create type and size, trading pattern and the reports, vessel arrests, breaches of
difficulties.
PSC detention record it is possible to financial obligations to financial

assess the risk levels. A vessel near to Whilst a busy vessel is no guarantee organisations and impending or
the end of its life, plagued with PSC of payment it is certainly better than a current insolvencies (such as Chapter

detentions and close to a breaking vessel sat idle. Vessels have been laid up 11 in the US). Such information can

region may be seen as a likely candidate for prolonged periods, suffered a be valuable.
for scrapping, and not a good credit casualty or trading only sporadically, All these factors taken together can

risk. Indeed, review of the wider fleet inevitably give rise to the likelihood that be used to form a practical assessment
that reveals vessels that have suffered
cash flow will be difficult.
of the risk of doing business.

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Salvus Law Credit Reports

In a perfect world a supplier would be able to carry out a detailed risk assessment for each and every RFQ that they

receive. Of course time constraints mean that this is not possible, and sometimes the necessary resources are simply not

available. At Salvus Law an ever increasing number of our clients are asking us for credit reports / risk assessments on
particular vessels owners. We combine the kind of research described above with our database of debt collection work, to

identify the poor performers and provide up-to-date assessments.
Our experiences from our debt collection work (we carry out debt recovery work for around 150 ship suppliers in various

sectors, across the world) are a fundamental part of our risk assessment process and put us in unique position of assessing the
market and identifying the bad guys.

Our reports are provided within a few hours, at low cost and allow management to take quick decisions. If you are
interested in the credit reporting service we offer we invite you to contact us at bh@salvuslaw.com or sj@salvuslaw.com

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38 The SHIP Supplier Issue 61 2014