• TPM25
  • March 2-5, 2025 | Long Beach Convention Center

Chantal McRoberts

Drewry Shipping Consultants

Director-DSCA Advisory

Chantal has worked in the ocean shipping and ports infrastructure space for over 25 years.

Chantal’s early career was in the ocean freight arena. She has held operational, marketing and trade management roles at P&ONedlloyd, APL and Maersk.

Chantal has been in the consultancy sector since 2007 and has worked for Drewry since 2013. In her role as Director of Supply Chain Advisory she works with global brands focusing on best practices in ocean freight procurement, rate forecasting, ocean bid strategy and contract appraisals. She frequently presents to C-Suite executives on how to effectively procure ocean freight in an ever-volatile market.

Sessions With Chantal McRoberts

Tuesday, 4 March

  • 03:05pm - 03:45pm (PST) / 04/mar/2025 11:05 pm - 04/mar/2025 11:45 pm

    Index-Linked Contracts: Time for Another Look?
    Index-linked contracts came up in conversation repeatedly in 2024 and it’s not hard to understand why. After a year of extreme rate volatility, linking rates within contracts to a floating index accomplishes several things simultaneously: It ensures shippers’ rates don’t fall out of step with the market, risking rolling of cargo, and avoids the need to renegotiate contracts midstream as often occurs in volatile years. Yet, despite the advantages in risk mitigation and volatility in recent years, the concept has struggled to gain traction. That’s due in part to the legal heavy lifting: Shippers often don’t want to use carrier or forwarder terms and conditions, but struggle to get the other side to accept their own. Then both sides need to agree on which index to use. Finally, for any party using an index-linked contract, additional value would come from being able to hedge the chosen index using exchange-traded derivative contracts, yet such markets, though they exist, are criticized for limited liquidity and transparency and are not used by carriers, remaining largely the domain of day traders. Still, some very much believe in the concept. NYSHEX said it plans to introduce a new set of indices in 2025 to be “freely available for all carriers, shippers and NVOCCs to use for their index-linked contracts.” This session will review how and when index-linked contracts can be beneficial to shippers when used properly, and what roadblocks shippers are likely to encounter.
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