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Dubai-headquartered maritime technology group Marcura has acquired the business assets of US-based demurrage and marine claims specialist Fairway Maritime . The transaction strengthens Marcura’s managed services capacity in North America and follows the acquisitions of HubSE in 2025 and Shipdem earlier in 2026, positioning Marcura Claims as the industry’s largest laytime processor by volume .
Acquisition Expands US Footprint and Tanker Expertise
Founded in 2005, Fairway Maritime manages the complete claims process for shipowners, vessel pools, refiners, and trading companies across the United States and Europe . Its services cover demurrage, deviation, shifting, detention, and other reimbursement claims, with senior analysts drawn from the operations and trading desks of major commodity trading houses .
Henrik Hyldahn, Group CEO of Marcura, said the acquisition pairs technology with domain expertise: “Marcura’s technology platform puts AI to work where it adds the most value, taking on more of the heavy lifting in a claim: reading documents, extracting clauses, and standardising calculations. Edge cases in demurrage are frequent, and Fairway has spent twenty years making those calls” .
Consolidation Trend Reshapes Niche Claims Sector
The deal continues a multi-year roll-up in the demurrage and laytime services sector, where independent specialists are being absorbed into larger platforms that combine software, data, and managed services.
Tom Black, managing partner at Fairway Maritime, noted the strategic fit: “We built Fairway Maritime on a simple promise: hand us the documents, and we will handle everything through to collection. The work Marcura is doing with AI-assisted claims management is exciting. That ongoing investment, at scale, is something our team and our customers stand to benefit from” .
Fairway Maritime will be fully integrated into Marcura Claims, with its existing analyst team retained to support current customers while contributing expertise across the wider portfolio . Black will remain with Marcura in an advisory capacity .
Industry-Wide Demurrage Leakage Drives Demand
The consolidation comes as shipowners and charterers face mounting pressure to recover demurrage costs. Analysis by Marcura across more than 20,000 claims processed annually indicates that dry bulk alone accounts for an estimated $8–10 billion in demurrage fees each year, roughly 6–8% of total freight spend .
According to Marcura, approximately 75% of demurrage analyst time is absorbed by manual process tasks, with only 25% dedicated to the commercial work of negotiation and analysis . Teams using the Marcura Claims platform have reported a 50% reduction in processing time and a 7–8% reduction in overall demurrage spend, the company has stated .
Strategic Implications for Owners and Charterers
The acquisition positions Marcura to offer an end-to-end claims ecosystem spanning self-service laytime tools, AI-assisted processing, and fully managed services across all major cargo segments, including tanker, chemical, dry bulk, and inland barge markets .
Industry observers are watching whether the consolidation trend will push smaller independent demurrage boutiques to seek similar partnerships or exit the market. Marcura, backed by Marlin Equity Partners, has signalled its intention to continue integrating claims data with voyage management systems to create a “learning loop” that informs pre-fixture decisions and chartering strategies using structured claims outcomes .
