A netback answers one question every physical desk asks daily: if I sell this cargo at the destination price, what am I actually left with at the loading port? You take the delivered price, subtract everything it costs to get the cargo there, and what remains is the netback. It is the honest FOB value of your molecule or tonne, stated in the only place that matters, the point where you control it.
The formula is short. Netback equals destination price minus freight, minus insurance, minus port and canal costs, minus losses in transit such as LNG boil-off, minus financing for the voyage days. The arithmetic is trivial. The judgement is in the inputs, and that is where desks separate themselves.
