The COVID pandemic has impacted nearly every aspect of global commerce, and the shipping industry is no exception having experienced severe disruption in many different ways.

Over the past two years, most maritime lawyers will have received multiple enquiries in relation to delays caused to vessels by COVID, where there is a dispute as to whether owners or charterers are liable under the terms of the charterparty.

Against this background, two London arbitration awards have recently been published which shed some light on how Tribunals are grappling with these issues.
Continue Reading COVID related off-hire decisions from the LMAA

  1. Security

Obtaining security for a party’s claim on the one side or security for a party’s costs on the other can be crucial remedies in times of a global pandemic where there may be issues with enforcement due to the closures of courts, delayed processes and a general lack of available assets.

Security and enforcement interact closely with each other where unless security has been obtained in advance, the process of issuing enforcement proceedings may be disproportionately expensive or time-consuming, particularly where it is difficult to locate assets. In practical terms, it is often pointless to arbitrate if the claim is not secured.
Continue Reading An update on security and enforcement during a global pandemic

Early results from our 2020 shipping survey – Navigating a post-COVID world indicate that industry participants believe more transparency is needed to tackle the impact and challenges caused by the pandemic.

66% of respondents so far indicate that transparency and sharing of information might be key to the shipping industry emerging stronger from the crisis.

How will the shipping industry respond to the impact of COVID-19?

We are conducting a short anonymous survey to discover what impact participants consider COVID-19 will have on the shipping industry. Through collecting responses from companies representing the industry across different sectors and geographies, we shall analyse the impact COVID-19 may have on different segments

On 9 July, governmental representatives of the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and USA held a virtual summit, alongside business leaders across the world, to discuss the issues faced by seafarers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit was hosted by UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, and UK Maritime Minister, Kelly Tolhurst.

The result of the summit was a commitment from the attendee governments to agree and introduce international measures to improve repatriation of seafarers and crew changes, during the global pandemic.

Continue Reading Protection for Seafarers? International Summit on Crew Changes

Today’s global economy is facing unprecedented challenges and many firms are in the business of survival as a consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak. While some Asian countries are starting to show signs of emerging from lockdown, it is nonetheless a grim and trite recital to acknowledge that many Asian countries were heavily affected in the early stages of the global crisis. According to official figures, China’s GDP recorded an unprecedented 6.8 percent year-on-year decline in the first quarter of 2020. Being at the geographic forefront of the current crisis, our Asian offices have been both advising and counseling numerous clients with their commercial matters and arrangements that have faced interference as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

We would like to share our experience of handling Covid-19 in Asia, and lessons learned.
Continue Reading COVID-19 and the impact on shipping– what have we learnt from Asia

The question of whether COVID-19 would forever change the world as we know it remains to be answered. For the time being, however, the pandemic has certainly changed the way we live and conduct business. In an effort to adjust to the current requirements of strict social distancing, we have had to be creative and use technology to our advantage. For instance, in order to sustain the administration of justice, we have had to allow virtual hearings to become the new norm.

In April 2020, Richard Gunn (partner), Elli Aidini (associate) and Katherine Varney (trainee) were involved in a three-day virtual arbitration hearing via Zoom. The experience was unique for all. Although initially there were concerns about the confidentiality of the process and the ability of the parties to overcome technical difficulties, the hearing was concluded successfully. In this article, we will attempt to share our experience of a virtual hearing and recommendations for conducting such hearings in the future.
Continue Reading Preparing and attending a virtual arbitration hearing

Jointly the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are calling on seafarers across the world to sound their ships’ horns when in port at midday local time on 1 May 2020.

1 May marks International Workers’ Day (or Labour Day), with about 66 countries around the world (and many more unofficially) celebrating the contribution made by workers.

During the current COVID-19 crisis, it is especially important to recognise the contributions made by all maritime workers, including seafarers but also other on-board and onshore personnel, who are ensuring that medical supplies, fuel and food continue to be transported safely across the world. At the moment, they are doing so while working under extreme conditions, such as being unable to go home for even longer periods of time than usual, due to travel restrictions and difficulties in changing crews on vessels.
Continue Reading Ships to sound their horns for key workers on 1 May 2020

On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (the Virus) to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. It seems clear that the Virus is also having an impact on economic activities not only in China, but also in the 23[1] countries outside of China where