We are looking for a Commercial Shipping Manager in City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, WC

Commercial Shipping Manager

Location: Cape Town (Bellville)

Department: Commercial

Reports to: Commercial Executive

About the Role

Our client is looking for an experienced Commercial Shipping Manager to take ownership of

commercial shipping activities, including vessel capacity and allocation, volume forecasting,

shipping-line negotiations, freight profitability, rates, rebates and commercial reporting.

This is a strategic commercial shipping role that sits at the intersection of commercial, operations,

finance and shipping-line relationships.

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring that contracted shipping volumes are

effectively managed, vessel space is optimised, commercial agreements are executed correctly and

the business maximises freight profitability.

This is an ideal opportunity for a commercially driven shipping professional who is comfortable

working with shipping lines, freight rates, volumes, forecasts and financial data, while also leading

a team.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial Shipping & Vessel Allocation

• Manage and monitor contracted shipping volumes and vessel allocations.

• Oversee weekly vessel allocation planning and ensure available capacity is optimally utilised.

• Manage daily vessel allocation meetings and ad-hoc space requirements.

• Monitor increases and decreases in volumes and proactively communicate changes to

relevant shipping lines.

• Manage weekly forecasting processes and ensure accurate forecasts are submitted to

shipping lines within agreed deadlines.

• Resolve allocation, forecasting and capacity-related queries with shipping lines.

• Ensure agreed actions from allocation and forecasting meetings are implemented.

Commercial Strategy & Profitability

• Analyse freight rates, volumes, costs and margins to identify opportunities to improve

profitability.

• Manage and oversee consolidated selling tariffs and rates across shipping lines, commodities

and destinations.

• Negotiate seasonal, quarterly and ad-hoc rates with shipping lines.

• Negotiate and manage rebates and other commercial incentives.

• Monitor freight profitability and identify opportunities to optimise margins.

• Develop commercial strategies based on historical volumes, market information and

forecast demand.

• Provide the Sales team with commercial insight and recommendations on optimised

shipping opportunities.

• Identify new and innovative ways to improve profitability while maintaining commercially

sustainable relationships with clients and service providers.

Shipping-Line Negotiations & Relationships

• Build and maintain strong professional relationships with shipping lines and other key

industry stakeholders.

• Participate in commercial negotiations and contribute to broader strategic objectives.

• Prepare historical volume, rate, profitability and market data to support negotiations.

• Manage commercial agreements and ensure negotiated terms are implemented correctly.

• Participate in industry and networking engagements to strengthen relationships and identify

opportunities.

Contracts, Rebates & Cost Management

• Ensure all cost components within shipping contracts are correctly implemented.

• Verify that rebates and charges are accurately calculated, implemented, recovered and

accounted for.

• Monitor outstanding contractual rebates and ensure recovery within agreed timelines.

• Review and maintain freight comparison information and identify changes in rates and costs.

• Work closely with Finance to ensure commercial information and recoveries are accurate.

• Identify discrepancies and ensure corrective action is taken.

Reporting & Commercial Analytics

• Develop, maintain and improve commercial reports relating to volumes, rates, profitability

and rebates.

• Analyse historical and forecast data to support commercial decision-making.

• Produce regular management reports and ensure information is accurate and delivered

within agreed deadlines.

• Monitor daily and weekly commercial performance and identify areas requiring corrective

action.

• Continuously identify opportunities to improve the use of data and reporting to support

profitability.

Quotation Management

• Oversee the daily quotation and quoting process.

• Ensure all quotations are accurately prepared and issued within agreed turnaround times.

• Monitor the quotation pipeline and ensure outstanding quotes are followed up.

• Support the quotation team with complex queries and commercial decision-making.

• Approve exceptional shipping-related costs where required.

Team Leadership

• Lead, manage and develop the commercial/quoting team.

• Set clear objectives and manage performance against agreed KPIs.

• Identify training and development opportunities to continuously improve team capability.

• Manage staff leave and resource requirements in line with operational needs.

• Support the team in resolving complex issues and challenges.

• Foster a collaborative, high-performance environment across the team and wider business.

• Ensure company policies, processes, procedures and commercial objectives are consistently

implemented.

Minimum Requirements

Experience:

• Proven experience within the shipping, freight forwarding or container shipping industry.

• Strong experience dealing directly with shipping lines.

• Experience in commercial shipping, freight pricing, vessel allocation, space management or

shipping-line negotiations.

• Experience managing shipping volumes and forecasting.

• Strong understanding of freight rates, tariffs, rebates and commercial agreements.

• Experience analysing freight profitability, margins and commercial opportunities.

• Experience working with historical and forecast volume data.

• Previous experience managing and developing a team.

Advantageous Experience

• Experience within the fruit/export industry or another seasonal export environment.

• Experience with NVOCCs, shipping consolidators or loaders.

• Experience working with shipping-line contracts and incentive/rebate structures.

• Relevant shipping-line or liner training.

Key Competencies

The successful candidate will be:

• Commercially astute

• Numerically and analytically strong

• A confident negotiator

• Highly organised and structured

• Decisive and quick to respond

• Resilient and able to work under pressure

• Solution-oriented

• Persuasive and confident

• Adaptable and proactive

• Goal-driven and commercially ambitious

• An effective communicator

• A strong people leader

Why This Role?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of a high-impact commercial shipping function, working

directly with shipping lines and internal stakeholders to optimise capacity, strengthen commercial

agreements and drive freight profitability.

If you have a strong understanding of the shipping-line environment and enjoy the combination of

commercial negotiations, numbers, forecasting, strategy and relationship management, this role

could be a strong fit.