Commodity Atlas
Categories/Freight/Tankers/Concept

Worldscale, TCE Conversion, and Risk

Worldscale points are not directly comparable across routes without translating into time-charter equivalent economics.

Core Points

  • TCE conversion requires bunker, port, and voyage assumptions.
  • Same WS move can imply different PnL across lanes.
  • Rate volatility should be normalized to duration and utilization.

Case Studies

Case: WS Rise but Lower TCE

A nominal WS rise still produced weaker TCE due to higher bunker and waiting-time costs.

Case: TCE Spread Hedge Error

A hedge built on WS-level intuition underperformed because route-level cost assumptions diverged from realized execution.

References

Last reviewed: 2026-03-21