Backhaul

Backhaul is the return leg of a round voyage carrying cargo back toward the load region, fixed at a lower freight than the headhaul because the operator’s priority is to reposition the ship rather than to maximize the rate. The classic example is grain or coal moving Pacific-to-Atlantic against a fronthaul of finished goods or clean products the other way. A backhaul cargo cuts ballast days and lifts the round-voyage TCE even at a depressed unit rate, since any contribution above voyage cost beats steaming empty. Charterers exploit weak backhaul markets to move low-value bulk commodities cheaply.