Marine Trade Finance closes that gap. Bunkers, port disbursements, canal tolls and stores, funded by a panel of specialist partners so a vessel's outgoings sit where its cash actually is.
Bunkers are stemmed and due on the supplier's terms. Canal tolls are payable in full before the vessel moves. Freight settles weeks later. The difference comes out of the owner's own cash.
The same panel funds the owner who buys and the supplier who sells. Switch the view.
Four ways we put working capital behind a vessel's costs, arranged through our panel of specialist funding partners.
Deferred payment for fuel — the vessel's single largest running cost. The supplier is paid on their own terms by a funding partner; you repay on terms set to match the trade, so the fuel is funded until the voyage earns.
Cover for the costs that fall due before freight or hire is collected: port disbursements, agency and husbandry accounts, towage, pilotage, provisions, and canal transit dues — including Suez Canal and Panama Canal transits, where the full toll is payable before the vessel moves.
Lubricants, provisions, spares, repairs and technical services supplied on deferred terms, so planned and unplanned vessel costs sit alongside the earning cycle rather than the supplier's invoice date.
Funding for decarbonisation and efficiency projects — shore power and OPS connections, exhaust gas and emissions equipment, ballast water treatment, energy-saving devices, hull and propulsion upgrades, engine conversions and dry dock retrofit packages — spread across the working life of the installation rather than falling on a single yard invoice.
For bunker suppliers, fuel traders, ship agents, chandlers and port service providers: convert invoices issued to shipowners and operators into immediate working capital.
Estimate your working capital →We work exclusively in shipping and maritime services — bunkers, agency, chandlery, port services and canal transits. We understand the vessel, the cycles and the risk profile.
Not a map of offices. A map of outgoings. Every marker is a payment that falls due before the freight is collected, and a canal toll is payable in full before the vessel is allowed to move.
Enter what you spend each month on the costs you want financed, and the two dates. The figure on the right is the cash currently locked in the gap between when you pay and when you collect.
Supplier, agent or chandler? Use the working capital calculator.
The trade, the debtor, the tenor, the volume.
Counterparties, beneficial owners and vessels against OFAC, EU, UN and UK lists.
Recourse or not. Priced to the debtor.
Matched to the partner most likely to approve it, not pushed through one product.
Facility documented and drawn.
Diligence and structure come before funding, not after — so every facility protects the funding partner's capital and the client's own relationships.
Deals are built by maritime operators — documentation that lines up, the right structure, and terms that fit how the vessel actually trades.
Counterparties, beneficial owners and vessels are screened against OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists before any deal funds.
Each receivable sits against an identified commercial debtor and a delivered transaction — no blind risk.
Calculators the market needs and nobody publishes properly. Each one qualifies the visitor before the first call.
Suez and Panama tolls by vessel type, SCNT and laden status. Payable in full before transit, the clearest financing trigger there is.
Route, consumption and port rotation into a single bunker, disbursement and toll figure. The number becomes the facility ask.
Compliance cost per voyage under EU ETS and FuelEU. Feeds straight into equipment and retrofit finance.
Eight questions on debtor, documents and terms. Scored, with the gaps named, before a call is booked.
Exactly what a funder needs to see, by structure and jurisdiction. Downloadable and shareable.
Fernando Tirado is the founder of Marine Trade Finance. He works across shipping, bunkering and trade finance in EMEA, MENA and the Americas, originating and structuring short-tenor maritime receivables and placing them with an external panel of funding partners.
Marine Trade Finance is a trade finance origination firm focused on the shipping and maritime services sector. We work alongside a panel of specialist funding partners to arrange financing for a vessel's running costs — bunkers, port disbursements, agency and canal dues, stores, spares and services — for shipowners, operators and charterers, and to turn the invoices their suppliers issue into working capital.
The same panel funds the capital side of the fleet, where owners need equipment for maritime decarbonisation, retrofits and efficiency upgrades without committing the cash up front.
Marine Trade Finance also trades as shorepower.energy, which originates financing for shore power equipment for port authorities, terminals, EPC contractors, energy providers and equipment manufacturers. Same company, same model: origination and structuring, with capital provided by third parties.
Most shipping finance is designed around how banks work, not around how vessels trade. Bunkers are paid before the cargo earns. Port costs fall due before hire is collected. Suppliers invoice on 30-day terms but wait 90. Marine Trade Finance exists to fix that timing problem — structuring working capital around the actual rhythm of the trade, not the calendar on a bank's system.
How the financing works, who qualifies, and how we handle vessel and counterparty compliance.
We originate and structure financing for the running costs of ships — bunkers, port disbursements, agency and canal dues, stores, spares and equipment — for shipowners, operators and charterers, and we turn the invoices their suppliers issue into working capital. We arrange the facility; the money comes from a panel of specialist funding partners.
No. Marine Trade Finance is an origination and advisory firm, not a bank or lender. We structure each deal and place it with the funding partner best suited to the vessel, the trade and the jurisdiction, on a best-efforts basis. Financing is provided by third-party funding partners, and we are not a party to the facility agreement between the client and the funder.
Vessel operating costs (bunkers, lubricants, stores, spares and repairs), voyage costs (port disbursements, agency and husbandry accounts, and Suez or Panama canal tolls), equipment and retrofit projects, and the receivables owed to bunker suppliers, agents and chandlers. Tenors typically run 30 to 90 days, set to match the vessel's earning cycle.
Before any facility funds, we screen the counterparties and their beneficial owners against OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists, and we check the vessel's compliance — flag, IMO number, ownership, classification and P&I cover, and trading history — against the same lists. Higher-risk routes and jurisdictions are handled with enhanced due diligence. If sanctions or KYC/AML screening is not clear, the deal does not proceed.
The receivable itself is the primary security — a delivered transaction against an identified commercial debtor. Non-recourse structures are available against creditworthy debtors. What else is required depends on the debtor, the tenor and the structure.
Once we have the documents and the counterparties clear diligence and sanctions screening, we scope, package and present the deal to funders quickly — delay costs our clients working capital. Timing depends on how complete the information is and on the outcome of KYC, AML and sanctions checks. No facility is committed until those are satisfied, funder approval is granted and final documentation is signed.
Shipping and maritime services worldwide, with hands-on operating experience across West Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Every facility remains subject to due diligence, funder approval and final documentation.
Owner, operator, charterer or supplier to the fleet. Send the shape of it and we come back within one business day.