A soft launch phase of new shipping software has been announced, that is claimed to provide shipowners, charterers, agents and brokers with a unique tool to improve the chartering process. Ship-search.com’s technology allows searching simultaneously for both charterers’ requirements and ship owners’ availabilities, automatically emailing them both when a match is found. The software is available continuously and is a free service for all.

The site, which is backed by Informa Group, will launch with the world’s complete database of 22,000 company and 87,000 vessel records already integrated. This will enable ship owners to use the site without having to go through the lengthy process of inputting their ship’s specifications. The service is designed to accurately match charter requirements, ships sales and cargoes, to vessel capacity and availability, without users having to stay on-line. A ‘family’ of 14 websites has been created to cover specific shipping sectors, ranging from containership-search.com and surveyship-search.com to sailingship.com and warship-search.com.

During the soft launch phase, the site will be fully functional and open for trading - over 20,000 shipping companies will be invited to trial the system over this time. Phase two of the shipsearch.com launch will take place in early 2001, when additional services go live on-line. These include a partnership with Marsh Ltd who will be offering users a range of on-line insurance products.