Worldscale is a unified system of establishing payment of freight rate for a given oiltanker's cargo. Worldscale was established in November 1952 as an average total cost of shipping oil from one port to another by ship. A large table was created. The same scale is used today, although it was merged with the American Tanker Rate Schedule (ATRS) in 1969, and by 2002 the table included the average cost of 320,000 voyages in permutations of from 1 load and 1 discharge port to 5 loads and 10 discharge ports. Worldscale is produced by Worldscale Association (NYC) Inc. for the Americas and by Worldscale Association (London) Ltd. for the rest of the world. The freight for a given ship and voyage is normally expressed in a percentage of the published rate, and is supposed to reflect the freight market demand at the time of fixing.

Following are some samples.

From Yokohama to:

US$/tonne

Miles

Adelaide 10.60 10,574

Aden 12.39 13,038

Chiba 2.90 50

In negotiating a price to pay, the above table is referred to as WS100, or 100% of Worldscale. The actual price negotiated between shipowner and charterer can range from 40% to 200% and is referred to respectively as WS40 to WS200 depending on how much loss the first is willing to take on that voyage and how much the latter is willing to pay.

INTERTANKO

Worldscale is unique to tanker voyage chartering. The purpose is to enable a tanker to obtain the same net return per day at the same Worldscale percentage regardless of the voyage actually undertaken. Thus the profitability (or loss) of various voyages can easily be compared. INTERTANKO, as the only industry group, keeps a close dialogue with the Worldscale Associations in London and New York to ensure that the Worldscale system provides as good comparisons as is practicable.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first tanker scale was introduced during World War II and has subsequently been further developed and refined. The purpose is to provide a system whereby a tanker can obtain the same net return per day at the same Worldscale percentage regardless of the voyage actually undertaken.

INTERTANKO has a Worldscale Committee which keeps touch with the Worldscale Associations in London and New York, both on issues of overall principles and on details. The INTERTANKO secretariat provides members with interpretation of Worldscale issues, provides the Worldscale Associations with port costs and other relevant information. The Worldscale Associations have introduced an electronic version of the Scale, which opens up for much speedier corrections and amendments, as well as provides users of the system access to a far greater number of flat rates than in the printed version.

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INTERTANKO’s objectives in a Worldscale context are:

To ensure that any schedule of nominal freight rates should be as useful for comparison purposes as is practicable

To keep under review the Schedule of Nominal Freight Rates published by the Worldscale Association or any other standard of reference intended to be used for the comparison of rates and market levels

To co-operate and develop a constructive dialogue with such interested parties in the tanker industry as may be useful to further the Committee's aim

To generate ideas and make recommendations, where appropriate, both in terms of policy and in specific cases

INTERTANKO's publication: "Worldscale - A Tanker Chartering Tool", gives a description of the Worldscale system, what it does and what it does not do. Please see https://www.intertanko.com/shopping/ShowItem.aspx?id=19069