Hapag-Lloyd AG v. Skyros Maritime Corporation and Agios Minas Shipping Company [2024] EWHC 3139 (Comm)
In a significant new case, the UK Commercial Court assessed damages following late redelivery of two vessels under time charterparties where, pursuant to the terms of MOAs signed with third party buyers for their sale, Owners could not charter the
Trading companies that seek to insulate their shipping risk by allocating their chartering activities to a separate entity will be reassured by a recent judgment of the English Court, in which it was decided that a letter of indemnity was enforceable only against the entity which had issued it, and not against a connected entity (or their exporter clients) as supposed undisclosed principals.Continue Reading Keeping Risk at Arm’s Length – The Xing Zhi Hai [2024] EWHC 2371 (Comm)
The global shipping industry is the backbone of international trade. This article explores areas in which legal strategies can help the shipping industry meet supply chain risks
Continue Reading Navigating Storms: Some legal strategies for contingency planning in shipping supply chains
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Navigating the turbulent waters of the global supply chain from geopolitical uncertainty, to evolving sanctions, and the adoption of decarbonisation: Insights from Reed Smith’s London International Shipping Week event.
Continue Reading Insights from Reed Smith’s London International Shipping Week event: Managing your supply chain risk
The question of whether demurrage liquidates all or just some of the damages arising from a charterer’s breach in failing to complete cargo operations within the laytime will no longer be decided by the UK Supreme Court following a commercial settlement. The parties have therefore consented to the appeal not proceeding.Continue Reading The Eternal Bliss – Court of Appeal has the final say
Can Charterers withhold hire without Owners’ consent, even if the vessel was off hire on the hire due date and where they had agreed deductions from hire would not be allowed without Owners’ written agreement?
Key facts
Under a charterparty dated 13 April 2021 on a heavily amended NYPE 1993 form, Bulk Trident Shipping Ltd (”Owners”) trip time chartered the “Anna Dorothea” (the “Vessel”) to Fastfreight Pte Ltd (“Charterers”) for the carriage of a bulk cargo from East Coast, India to China (the “Charterparty”).Continue Reading To have and to (with)hold – Fastfreight Pte Ltd v Bulk Trident Shipping Ltd [2023] EWHC 105 (Comm) The “Anna Dorothea”
The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (“EU ETS”) is a legislative scheme by which the EU caps emissions of greenhouse gases from certain industries by requiring emitters to surrender emission allowances to offset the gases they emit. A limited number of emitters are granted some free emission allowances, but most allowances must be purchased in auctions arranged by the European Energy Exchange (the “EEX”), which allowances may then be traded, before being surrendered to a competent authority by the emitters. Hence, the EU ETS is a “cap and trade” emissions scheme.
Change is underway to include certain emissions from shipping within the EU ETS, by phasing in requirements to report emissions and to purchase and surrender allowances for increasing proportions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxides (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions from shipping activity within the EU, between now and 2026.Continue Reading EU formalises its plans for the expansion of the EU ETS into shipping in 2024
Just as there is no easy route to decarbonisation, there is no straightforward way of balancing a shipowner’s obligation to comply with the MARPOL Carbon Intensity Indicator (“CII”) Regulations with a time charterer’s right to direct the employment of a vessel.
That much is clear from the long-awaited BIMCO CII Operations Clause for Time Charters 2022 and, more tellingly, from the industry reaction.
Now that the dust is settling: what does the clause actually say? What are the key sticking points? And how are owners and charterers positioning themselves before the CII Regulations come into force on 1 January 2023? In this briefing, we take a closer look at some of the emerging themes.Continue Reading BIMCO CII Clause for Time Charters – The dust begins to settle
The question of whether demurrage liquidates all or just some of the damages arising from a charterer’s breach in failing to complete cargo operations within the laytime has divided practitioners and academics for decades and, more recently, the English Court in K Line Pte Ltd v. Priminds Shipping (HK) Co Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 1712 (The Eternal Bliss). Now, in granting permission to appeal to the shipowners, it is a question which the Supreme Court has said it will answer.Continue Reading The Eternal Bliss – Permission to appeal granted by the UK Supreme Court