Ocean Transportation
Our Solutions
At Cargill Ocean Transportation, our customers are at the center of everything we do. It’s why we’ve built both a leading set of freight-shipping services and additional solutions that help our dry-bulk cargo customers meet their needs in a changing world.
Bulk shipping solutions
To serve our customers around the world, we have assembled one of the safest, most modern and efficient time-charter fleets in the industry. Averaging 700 bulk carrier ships across a range of vessel sizes for both dry and wet bulk cargo, our fleet is also one of the largest. This scale gives us the flexibility to move bulk cargo and solve our customers’ biggest challenges.
We are one of the biggest shippers of dry bulk goods in the world, with expertise to move a wide range of commodities such as grains, iron ore, coal, fertilizer, bauxite and more. Our dry bulk carrier fleet includes Cape, Panamax, Kamsarmax, Supramax, Handy and Coaster vessels. Across more than 4,000 voyages per year, we move more than 200 million metric tons of dry bulk cargo. With approximately 13,000 port calls, we have the logistics expertise to get your cargo where it needs to go even when disruptions occur in shipping lanes.
Bunker procurement solutions
We understand the complexities of fuel bunkering because we are one of the world’s largest users of marine fuels ourselves. It’s why we started offering our expertise and market insights to customers in the form of bunker procurement services. Whether you are looking for conventional fuels or biofuels – or exploring a transition to other future fuels – we can help.
Conventional fuels
We purchase approximately 4 million metric tons of bunkers annually – and we put that scale to work for you. We have strong relationships with bunker suppliers around the globe, and this enables us to offer a variety of procurement solutions to our customers, especially tramp shipping companies and trading houses. Our dedicated bunker procurement team gives you access to competitive pricing, optimized bunker logistics and improved claims support. We also offer a range of risk management tools. With us as your partner, you can lower costs, reduce risk and protect margins while keeping your business running seamlessly.
Biofuels
We are expanding our scale for drop-in biofuels like those made from fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), leaning on Cargill’s own production capacity. This expansion will enable us to meet growing demand from customers, especially at central bunkering hubs and along key shipping corridors. In 2023, we lifted 172,000 metric tons of biofuel blends, primarily for our bunker procurement customers, which translates to 63,000 metric tons of FAME.
Looking ahead, we are also deepening our knowledge of methanol bunkering to be ready to scale alongside our customers as methanol and methanol-powered ships become more widely available.
For the past 20 years, we have focused on bunker procurement and the associated risk management activities, building robust datasets to inform our decision-making. As we continue to grow, we will place even more emphasis on bunker procurement. You can lean on our expertise to help limit a core source of risk and worry in your own business.
Get more details about our bunker procurement offerings here.
Decarbonization solutions
Sustainability is a core part of our purpose. It’s also a business imperative for our customers and their customers, as the world demands goods that are produced and shipped with fewer emissions. That’s why we offer a comprehensive set of solutions to help our customers decarbonize their voyages and reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions, built on the extensive research and development we have invested in for more than a decade. This includes:
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Wind-assisted propulsion through a variety of vessel designs and installations, including our groundbreaking WindWings® technology developed with BAR Technologies, rotor sails, VentoFoil® sails and more.
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FAME-based biofuels, produced by Cargill using oils and other food waste as raw materials, which can be seamlessly intergrated with today’s conventional vessels.
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Next-generation green fuels like methanol (arriving in 2025-26), the most technologically ready zero-carbon option available in the near future.
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Green contracts of affreightment that include provisions like slow steaming and other emissions-saving measures, as well as biofuels and more.
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Insetting, which enables you to combine decarbonization solutions in more flexible ways that fit your unique business goals and the routes you travel, so you can reduce your Scope 3 carbon emissions.
No matter what your decarbonization goals may be, our customizable solutions can help you achieve them. We can work with you to build the right mix that meets your specific targets, methods and cost requirements. Additionally, working with us means you have a partner who is a credible, leading voice in building a low-carbon future for ocean shipping. And because we are at the forefront of this transition for ocean shipping, we also understand upcoming regulations, trends, technologies and more that can impact your decision-making. These insights make us a valuable partner as you navigate your way forward.
These solutions don’t come without risk, but as an industry leader we have the courage to invest, take risks and transparently share our learnings. By doing so, we can help our customers and other partners in the maritime industry transition to a more sustainable future.
Digital Business Solutions
Data analytics presents the opportunity to transform how the world moves, and maritime shipping is part of that revolution. At Cargill Ocean Transportation, we have embraced the power of data to accelerate our business – and what we can do for our customers.
We have built an AI-ready, best-in-class data foundation for our business and are putting it to work for you. This centralized data cloud is fed by all the touchpoints we have around the world with vessel operations, trade flows and more. It is already helping us gain operational efficiencies, drive decision-making in freight markets and put useful insights at our customers’ fingertips.
With this data ecosystem in place, we are quickly developing a new set of tools to give our customers a clear-cut edge and unprecedented options. Combined with our attentiveness and personalized touch, these digital solutions will help you meet your bulk shipping needs like never before.