DESDelivered Ex Ship

DES was in the very first Incoterms in 1936 and left in 2010. It was a bulk and charter term, and if you're buying stone, castings or commodities from India by the shipload you may still be sent it. Here's what it meant and what to ask for instead.

The current rules are Incoterms 2020, in force since 1 January 2020, and as of 28 September 2026 the ICC has published no newer edition. The caveat - we haven't seen DES on a consumer-goods quote from India, and we don't expect to. A container never travels DES.

Where It Still Shows Up

Mazagon Dock, the Mumbai government shipbuilder, still hosts a purchase-manual page defining "Delivered Ex-Ship" as the seller delivering "on board the ship un-cleared for import at the named port of destination", and it adds that if the seller should bear the discharge "then the DEQ term should be used" (Mazagon Dock's purchase manual (opens in a new tab), 2006, still online on 28 September 2026). That advice was right in 2006. Today the rule that makes the seller discharge is DPU, and the rule that does DES's job is DAP.

A shipbuilder buying steel and equipment by the shipload is exactly the buyer DES was built for, which is why it hung on there. If your Indian counterparty is a public-sector-trained commercial team or a bulk trader then this is the vocabulary they may reach for.

What DES Meant

Delivered Ex Ship. The seller delivered when the goods were placed at your disposal on board the ship at the named port of destination, not cleared for import and not unloaded. The seller paid the freight and, unlike under CIF, carried the risk across the water. Your job started on deck at your port: the discharge, the import clearance, the duty. It fitted chartered vessels and bulk cargo, where the seller controlled the ship and could answer for what happened on it.

What Replaced It

The 2010 edition dropped DES with DAF, DEQ and DDU. The ICC's introduction to the 2010 rules says "DAP can safely be used in cases where the Incoterms 2000 rule DES once was". DAP delivers "on the arriving means of transport, ready for unloading", which for a ship is the deck at the discharge berth, exactly where DES stopped.

If A Supplier Still Quotes DES

Ask for DAP [named port and berth], on board the arriving vessel, Incoterms 2020, then settle the two points DES used to leave to the charter party. Who pays discharge? Under DAP unloading is yours, and for bulk cargo that's stevedores, cranes and time, so get the discharge rate and who pays for delays into the contract. And which berth? "DAP Fremantle" isn't enough for a ship. Name the terminal and check it can take the vessel and the cargo.

The Trap

DES looks like CIF from a distance, since under both the seller books and pays the ship. The difference is the risk. Under CIF your risk starts on board in India. Under DES the seller's risk ran to your port. A buyer who confuses the two either insures twice or not at all, and a contract naming DES has no current rule to settle which it was.

The other trap is discharge. DES delivered on board, not on the quay, so the cost of a slow discharge was always the buyer's. DAP keeps that split. If you want the seller to unload then the rule you want is DPU, not DAP.