Distressed cargo

Distressed cargo is a term used more in bulk trades. A cargo is termed distressed cargo for a few reasons:
A buyer defaults on a contract due to a drop in commodity prices. When a seller or buyer has left it too late for execution of the trade under normal vessel and product scheduling time frames. A ship is unable to offload a cargo at a specified port due to bad weather and have to sail from that port within a specified time frame to honour their other employments which means they have to classify the cargo as distressed cargo and try to get rid of it before they reach their next port.