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ARTICLE: Voyage Charters

May 28, 2011

Charterparties are contracts for the hire of a vessel (or part of, or space onboard, a vessel). Voyage charters are a type of charterparty where the charterer requires the vessel for one voyage only, i.e. if you needed to move 100 MT of iron ore from Brazil to China, you could charter a bulk carrier and use its holds to transport your cargo from Brazil to China.

As the charterer, you only need to provide the goods for shipment at the agreed time and pay the freight charges (‘freight’, not ‘hire’ as in time / bareboat charters). The shipowner will provide the ship, equipment, bunkers, Master and crew. They will also normally pay the port expenses, pilot fees etc.

Voyage charters are commonly used in the movement of bulk cargoes and normally the charterparty is entered into in advance of the goods actually being received and sometimes in advance of them being purchased by the shipper. Therefore when the goods are presented for shipment (at the ship’s rail) the Master will normally issue a Bill of Lading describing the type, amount and quality of cargo actually received. The Bill of Lading acts as a receipt only (rather than the contract of carriage itself – as in, for example, the Liner trades).

Many of the standard forms of voyage charter contain the suffix ‘voy’ (CEMENTVOY, ASBATANKVOY etc.), which gives a clue as to the type of charter they relate to, but a more extensive list of the main forms of voyage charter, and the cargoes commonly carried under them, is set out below:
GENCON 1976 (general bulk cargo)
GENCON 1994 (general bulk cargo)
ASBATANKVOY (oil and gas)
POLCOALVOY (coal)
AMWELSH 93 (coal)
SCANCON (Scandinavia cargo)
GRAINCON (grain)
NIPPONCOAL (coal)
OREVOY (ores)
NUBALTWOOD (wood from the Baltic)
GASVOY (liquid gas, but not LNG)
FERTIVOY 88 (fertilizer)
AUSTWHEAT 1990 (Australian wheat)
NORGRAIN 89 (North American grain)
HYDROCHARTER 1975 (phosphates etc.)

ARTICLE: Time Charters

May 28, 2011

Charterparties are contracts for the hire of a vessel (or part of, or space onboard, a vessel). Time charters are a type of charterparty where the charterer hires the vessel for a period of time. They normally hire the vessel with all its equipment, the Master and crew and in exchange the owner asks them to pay a ‘hire’ charge, which is paid daily or monthly.

Charterers in these situations may be buying and selling goods and require the use of a vessel for a number of months to transport goods in an area or in different parts of the world. Obtaining a vessel on time charter for a three month period and completing, say, seven voyages, would generally be much more cost effective than entering into seven seperate voyage charterparties with differnt ships.

Another scenario is where you identify potential demand for extra tonnage in acertain area (say bulk commodities being moved from northern Austrlia to Singapore and Hong Kong).You can then time charter a vessel from a shipowner and offer it for voyage charter on these routes. If successful, the freight you collect each week, or month, could far exceed the hire charges you are liable to pay to the shipowner and the admin costs of arranging the voyage charters.

Many of the standard forms of time charterparty contain the suffix ‘time’ (BALTIME, SHELLTIME etc.), which gives a clue as to the type of charter they relate to, but a more extensive list of the main forms of time charter, and the cargoes commonly carried under them, is set out below:
BALTIME 1939 (general)
SHELLTIME (offshore)
BARGEHIRE 94 (barges)
BOXTIME (containerships)
GENTIME (general)
NYPE 93 ‘New York Product Exchange’ (general)
SUPPLYTIME 89 (offshore)

ARTICLE: Bareboat Charters

May 28, 2011

Charterparties are contracts for the hire of a vessel (or part of, or space onboard, a vessel). Bareboat, or ‘demise’, charters are a type of charterparty where the charterer hires the vessel for a period of time and just hires the ship ‘bare’; in other words without a Master or crew. The charterer staffs the boat, supplies bunkers and is generally free to decide where to take the vessel and what to do with it (within the contractual limits set out in the charter). 

Often this is done as an alternative to buying a ship, whch can be a huge commitment. Say if a small shipping company is receiving more demand than it’s current fleet can supply, it may not want to order a new build ship or obtain a ship mortgage to buy a second hand vessel as both are very long term commitments and there is no guarantee that the demand will be sustained. Instead they may choose to pay six months’ or a year’s hire for a ship, crew it and capitalise on the upturned interest in this way. If the market remains high they can always increase the charter period or even make an offer to purchase the vessel, and if the interest fades then they can merely return the ship with no further commitment (and not suffering from any loss in hull value due to depreciation or lower freight rates).

Indeed, some shipping companies will never purchase their own fleet, preferring to hire vessels on long-term bareboat charters. In these companies it is not uncommmon for them to be allowed to paint the ship in their own livery whilst it is on charter so it does appear that they do in fact own it.

Many of the standard forms of time charterparty contain the prefix ‘bare’ (BARECON for example), which gives a clue as to the type of charter they relate to, but a more extensive list of the main forms of bareboat charter is set out below:
BARECON 2001

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