A cargo claim is a commercial problem before it is a legal one. On what usually happens: discharge analysis disagrees with load, both sides dig in, and the parcel sits accruing demurrage while lawyers are appointed. On what actually settles it: the sealed samples taken jointly at load, the test method named in the contract, and an umpire laboratory agreed while everyone was still friendly. Send us the two analyses and the contract and you will get an honest read on where you stand.
- 1Discharge and sampling
- 2Independent analysis
- 3Notice to the counterparty
- 4Documents assembled
- 5Settlement or arbitration
Under FOSFA terms the quality clock is 90 days from discharge and the payment clock 120 days from delivery. Miss the notice and the strongest case is worth nothing. These are general indications, read your own contract.
Two tracks, running at once
When a cargo goes wrong, two processes start in parallel and they have different clocks. Confusing them is what costs owners money.
The claim track is about establishing what happened, who is liable and what is recoverable. It is deliberate, evidence-driven and slow, and it belongs to the insurer, the appointed surveyor, the average adjuster and, where necessary, lawyers. It can run for months.
The cargo track is about the physical material, which is sitting somewhere costing money every day and, in many cases, deteriorating. It needs to be resolved in days.
The mistake we see most often is an owner allowing the cargo track to wait for the claim track. The claim does not move faster because the parcel is still in tank, but the loss grows every day it sits there. Preserving the evidence properly and disposing of the material promptly are compatible, and doing both is usually what a duty to mitigate looks like in practice.
The four reasons a buyer stops paying, and what each one needs
The stated reason is usually quality. The real reason is one of four, and telling them apart in the first week decides how the whole thing goes.
| What is really happening | How you can tell | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| The market moved against them | The complaint arrives late, is vague, and grows when you push back | Hold the deadline. A protective arbitrator appointment alongside the conversation is normal practice, not an escalation |
| Two honest analyses disagree | Both sides have a certificate and the numbers are close | Find the umpire laboratory named in the contract. If none is named, agree one jointly before either side commissions more testing |
| A document is wrong | The objection is about paperwork, not the product | Usually the cheapest to fix and the fastest. Check the entity names first: certificate, invoice, bill of lading |
| They cannot pay | Silence, then a technical objection with no analysis behind it | Stop negotiating. This is a credit problem wearing a quality costume, and it is a lawyer's job, quickly |
The clock does not stop while you talk. Under FOSFA terms an arbitrator must be appointed within 90 days of completion of discharge for quality and condition claims, and within 120 days from the end of the delivery period for monetary claims. Those are general indications of how that regime commonly works; editions differ and your contract may say something else. Diary your own deadline on day one.
We are brokers, not lawyers, and nothing here is legal advice. What we can do is tell you what the material is genuinely worth in its current condition and find the buyer who will take it that way. See trade dispute mediation.
What we do, and what we do not
The boundary matters, so it is worth stating plainly rather than in small print.
| We do: find buyers | Approach counterparties who can physically run the material in its actual condition, not in theory. |
|---|---|
| We do: run a controlled process | A short, disciplined market approach rather than an open circulation that signals distress and kills the price. |
| We do: advise on realistic outlets | Whether reblending, reprocessing, downgrade or as-is sale is the sensible route, based on what the market will actually take. |
| We do: work alongside your advisers | Provide the commercial evidence, offers received, market context, that a surveyor or adjuster may need to see. |
| We do: move fast | Same-day approach where the information pack is complete. |
| We do NOT: give insurance advice | We are not an insurance intermediary and we are not authorised to advise on, arrange or mediate insurance. Speak to your broker or insurer. |
| We do NOT: act as surveyor or adjuster | Condition, cause and quantum are for the appointed independent professionals. |
| We do NOT: give legal advice | Liability, contract and recovery questions belong with your lawyers. |
| We do NOT: take title | We are a broker throughout, paid a commission on the concluded sale, with no position in the cargo. |
Protect the evidence first
Whatever happens commercially, the evidence has to survive, and in the confusion of a rejection it very often does not. This is the short list that matters, and it costs nothing to get right on day one.
- Preserve the retained samples. Sealed, labelled, from both load and discharge, held by both sides. They are the most valuable evidence in any quality dispute and are routinely thrown away by mistake.
- Get an independent surveyor instructed early, before positions harden. A survey commissioned after two weeks of argument carries much less weight.
- Notify on time. Insurance policies and carriage contracts carry notification periods and time bars. Missing one is an avoidable, self-inflicted loss, check them immediately, with your own advisers.
- Document the condition with dated photographs, tank temperatures, ullage reports and the terminal's own records.
- Keep a running cost log: demurrage, storage, heating, detention. It supports the claim and, just as importantly, it tells you how much delay you can actually afford.
- Do not blend or move the parcel before the evidence is secured. It can destroy both the claim and the ability to establish what happened.
Where the material usually ends up
The realistic outcomes are the same as for any distressed parcel: correction, reprocessing, downgrade to a lower-value outlet, sale as-is to a buyer who prices for the risk, or, last and worst, disposal. Which of these is available depends on the product, the failure and, quite often, on whether any sustainability certification survives the incident.
That certification question is worth raising on day one. A parcel that can no longer carry a valid proof of sustainability is invisible to every buyer whose economics depend on counting it, so the buyer list changes completely, and approaching the wrong buyers for a week is pure lost time.
The mechanics of each route are set out under off-spec and distressed cargoes.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to bring a quality claim?
It depends on the contract, and the deadlines are shorter than most people expect. Under FOSFA terms an arbitrator must be appointed within 90 days of completion of discharge for quality and condition claims, and within 120 days from the end of the delivery period for monetary claims. Negotiating does not stop that clock. Read your own contract and take professional advice on it; this is a general indication, not advice on your case.
The buyer says the cargo is off-spec. What do I do first?
Establish which analysis governs and where it was taken, because loading and discharge figures diverge for legitimate reasons: moisture migrates, oxidation continues, and sampling methods differ. Then check whether the contract names an umpire laboratory. Do that before you argue about the number, because otherwise you are two parties quoting different tests at each other.
Can you help if we did not broker the cargo?
Yes. We are called in by sellers and by buyers on trades we had nothing to do with, precisely because we have no position in the outcome. What we bring is knowing what off-spec material is genuinely worth and who will take it in that condition. See trade dispute mediation.
When should I stop negotiating and get a lawyer?
Insolvency, suspected fraud, or an amount large enough that legal costs are worth it. Also when a contractual deadline is close: a protective appointment alongside the conversation is normal practice, not an escalation. We will tell you plainly when a case has passed the point where a broker is useful.
Are you an insurance broker?
No. We are a commodity broker. We are not an insurance intermediary, we are not authorised to advise on, arrange or mediate insurance, and nothing on this site is insurance advice. Insurance questions belong with your own insurance broker or insurer.
So what exactly do you do when a cargo is damaged?
The commercial disposal. We find buyers who can physically run the material in its actual condition, run a short controlled sale process rather than an open circulation that advertises distress, and get the parcel moved before storage and demurrage erode what is left. Your insurer, surveyor and adjuster handle the claim in parallel.
Should I wait for the insurer before selling the cargo?
That is a question for your own insurer and advisers, and you should ask them immediately rather than assume. What we can say from experience is that the claim does not resolve faster because the parcel is still sitting in tank, while the loss grows every day it does. In most policies there is also a duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate. Preserving evidence and disposing of the material promptly are usually compatible, but confirm the position with your insurer first.
What is the most common mistake owners make?
Losing the retained samples. They get discarded, unsealed or poorly labelled during the confusion of a rejection, and with them goes the best evidence of what the cargo was at load and at discharge. The second most common is running the commercial process too slowly and paying more in demurrage than the price difference being negotiated over.
Can you provide evidence for the claim?
We can provide the commercial record of what we did, which buyers were approached, what offers came back, what the market context was, and that is often useful to a surveyor or adjuster assessing whether the loss was reasonably mitigated. We do not provide expert opinion on condition, cause or quantum; those are for the appointed independent professionals.
Does a general average declaration change how you work?
It changes who bears the cost and adds the average adjuster to the group, but it does not change our role. The material still has to find a home, and that remains the commercial exercise. Contributions, security and adjustment are handled by your adjuster and insurers, not by us.
Market news
Recent headlines from across the feedstock and renewable fuel sector. Nothing specific to this market has come through the wires lately, so this is the wider view. The links go to the publisher; we do not host or edit their reporting, and a headline here is not our endorsement of it. Scroll for more.
- Kimchi waste could become viable feedstock for bioplastics
- Braskem biobased polymer helps Deterra drug disposal pouch earn packaging awards
- Eni and PETRONAS to explore high-performance bio-gasoline
- Linglong signs $2 billion Egypt investment MoU
- BTMA to represent European national associations at Tyres Europe board meetings
- Osaka Gas claims STS LNG bunkering first in Osaka Bay
- ISWG-GHG 22: Non-profits react
- USTC brings Copenhagen-based offices together in new hub
- ORLEN instigates new Baltic regional energy initiative
- TotalEnergies Lubmarine launches lubricant for 4-stroke medium speed marine engines
- IMO carbon price heads for December showdown
- LyondellBasell: Pyrolysis Reactors Installed for MoReTec Plant in Wesseling
- Sustainable aviation fuel pioneer completes successful trials
- Louis Dreyfus Company to generate biogas from citrus waste
- Nature by Design: A decade of IUCN, Monaco collaboration driving circular solutions for biodiversity
- European Digital Sustainability Skills Conference
- UCL reacts to IMO ISWG-GHG: ‘Steady progress on the Net Zero Framework’ made but ‘high uncertainty’ remains
- ISWG-GHG 22: ‘Genuine willingness’ for further NZF progress, observes Chair
18 headlines, updated automatically. Last refreshed .
Who to ask about Cargo claims & compromised parcels
Just ask. Cargo compromised and the clock running? We can be in front of buyers today. Claims stay with your own advisers. You get Bart van den Brug on the other end, same working day, in English or Dutch, and across the team also in French, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Russian.
On how we work: on the feedstocks and fuels on this site we are a broker. We never take title, we do not trade our own book, and we are paid a commission on business that concludes. Additives are the one exception: those we also buy and sell for our own account, and we say in which capacity we are acting before you commit to anything. Either way you will hear it from us when the answer is no, or when your parcel is not ready for the conversation you want to have. A market read or a second opinion on a specification costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Happy to look at whatever you have, even if it is half an analysis and a question.
+31 6 115 83 448
bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Sustainable Commodities 3 B.V., Lemmer, the Netherlands
Ask about Cargo claims & compromised parcels
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Or e-mail us directly: bart@sustainablecommodities.eu
Last reviewed 08 September 2026. Regulatory references are given for orientation and are not legal advice: verify against the current Official Journal text before contracting.