A voyage charter is an agreement to hire a vessel for a specific voyage — from a named load port to a named discharge port, for a named cargo. The shipowner is paid a lump-sum freight rate (in USD per metric tonne or per voyage) and bears the operating costs of the vessel. The charterer (cargo owner) pays laytime demurrage if loading or discharging takes longer than the agreed free time allowance. This is the most common chartering structure for single-cargo bulk commodity trades — grain, fertiliser, steel, cement. A time charter hires the vessel for a period of time (weeks, months or years) at a daily hire rate — the charterer controls deployment and pays voyage costs (fuel, port charges) while the shipowner pays vessel operating costs (crew, maintenance, insurance). Time charters are used when a trading house needs reliable forward vessel capacity for a programme of cargoes. A Contract of Affreightment (CoA) is a hybrid — it commits to lifting a defined volume over a period without specifying individual vessels, allowing the shipowner to nominate suitable tonnage for each shipment. Atabaş Group uses voyage charter for the majority of its ocean freight, with CoA structures for high-volume, recurring cargo programmes.

Demurrage is the daily rate payable by the charterer (cargo owner) to the shipowner when a vessel spends more time at port than the contractually agreed free time (laytime). Laytime is the number of hours or days allowed for loading or discharging the cargo, specified in the charterparty (voyage charter contract). If the terminal, berth or cargo operations are delayed and the vessel is held beyond its laytime allowance, demurrage accrues at the agreed daily rate — which for bulk carriers typically ranges from USD 5,000 to USD 30,000 per day depending on vessel size, and significantly more for tankers. Despatch is the opposite — if operations complete faster than laytime, the shipowner pays the charterer a daily rate (typically half the demurrage rate) for time saved. Demurrage claims are a common source of dispute in bulk commodity trades. Atabaş Group monitors laytime calculations on all chartered vessels and manages demurrage exposure through advance coordination with loading and discharge terminals. Proper Notice of Readiness (NOR) tendering and Statement of Facts (SoF) documentation are maintained for every vessel call to support any demurrage or despatch claim.

TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) is a United Nations customs transit system that allows road cargo to cross international borders under a sealed customs guarantee — the TIR Carnet — without physical customs inspection at each transit country border. The TIR carnet is issued by national guaranteeing associations (in Turkey, by the Turkish International Road Transporters Association — UND) and provides a financial guarantee to each transit country customs authority that any duties and taxes will be paid if the cargo is irregularly released in transit. The key benefit: a truck carrying a TIR carnet is sealed at origin, crosses multiple international borders with only carnet endorsement (not cargo inspection), and is unsealed only at the final destination customs. This reduces border crossing times from hours to minutes in most member countries. The TIR system currently covers 76 member countries spanning Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. For Turkish-origin road freight heading east (Iran, Iraq, Gulf states, Central Asia) or west (EU member states), TIR carnets are a standard working tool. Atabaş Group coordinates TIR documentation through licensed customs brokers and freight forwarders at the point of origin.

The standard international commodity shipment documentation package varies by transport mode and destination, but the core set for an ocean freight cargo is: Commercial Invoice (seller to buyer — quantity, price, value, Incoterm, parties); Packing List (weight, dimensions, marks and numbers per package — required even for bulk); Bill of Lading (B/L) — the key document: it is the receipt for cargo, evidence of the contract of carriage, and the document of title (original B/Ls must be surrendered at discharge to release the cargo); Certificate of Origin (required for customs preference claims — e.g., Turkish Form A/EUR.1 for GSP/EPA-eligible destinations, Chamber of Commerce-endorsed for general origin declaration); Inspection Certificate (SGS/BV quantity and quality — mandatory for Atabaş Group cargoes); Certificate of Analysis (CoA) / Mill Test Report — product-specific quality evidence; Phytosanitary Certificate (for grain, agricultural commodities — issued by Ministry of Agriculture); MSDS / SDS (Material Safety Data Sheet — for chemicals, petroleum products, fertilisers, LPG); Import permit / pre-shipment inspection certificate where required by the destination country. For road freight: CMR (Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road) transport document replaces the B/L. For rail: CIM consignment note. For air: Air Waybill (AWB). Atabaş Group prepares and coordinates the full documentation package as part of the supply contract.

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), commonly called the Middle Corridor, is a multimodal freight corridor connecting China to Europe via Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea (ferry from Aktau/Turkmenbashi to Alat near Baku, Azerbaijan), Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey (via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and Turkish rail network) and onward to European markets. The route became significantly more commercially relevant from 2022 as shippers sought alternatives to the Northern Corridor (trans-Siberian railway) and the Southern Corridor (Suez Canal/ocean) for China-Europe freight. The corridor has genuine competitive advantages for certain cargo types and trade lanes: transit times of 12–18 days China-Turkey (competitive with 25–35 day ocean), no Suez Canal toll, and avoidance of Northern Corridor geopolitical risks. However, it faces real constraints: Caspian ferry capacity is limited (though new vessels have been added since 2022); gauge change at the Kazakhstan/Azerbaijan-Turkey junction requires either bogie exchange or transloading; multiple operators and national rail administrations create coordination complexity; and capacity at the Baku, Tbilisi and Kars interchange nodes is constrained relative to demand. For high-value manufactured goods, automotive parts, chemicals and time-sensitive cargo where ocean transit time is too slow and airfreight is too expensive, the Middle Corridor is commercially viable. For bulk commodities (coal, grain, steel in large volume), ocean freight remains more cost-effective per tonne-kilometre. Atabaş Group coordinates Middle Corridor transit for qualifying cargo types on this route.