Page 42 - Industrial Plants

broad so as to include “war; act of war; civil war; reassigned to the party (charterer) who, through its
hostilities; revolution; rebellion; civil commotion; warlike commercial choices, generated such increased risk.
operations; laying of mines; acts of piracy; acts of The clause also provides that the shipowner may
terrorists; acts of hostility or malicious damage; comply with orders, directives and recommendations
blockade.” of governments and international organisations and
with those of war risk insurers. Finally, if the risk
“Particularly noteworthy are the War materialises and if the shipowner invokes its right to
Risk Clauses drafted by BIMCO, which refuse the charterer’s orders, the charterer must
are usually included in time charter nominate an alternative port for discharge and, failing
and voyage charter contracts such nomination, the shipowner may discharge the
cargo “at any safe port”.
In voyage charter contracts, where the itinerary of the
In time charter contracts – as is well known – the voyage is contractually defined (albeit sometimes
commercial use of the ship is not defined at the time of within a range), a war risk may occur during the period
the conclusion of the contract: the ship is indeed at the following the conclusion of the contract and preceding
charterer’s disposal for a certain period of time, during its execution. In such cases, the War Risk Clause for
which he may from time to time order the performance Voyage Chartering provides that if at any time before
of voyages according to his own commercial activity. the commencement of loading, it appears that, “in the
The issue arises when the charterer requests the reasonable judgement” of the master or shipowner, the
performance of a voyage that exposes the ship to war vessel and crew may be exposed to war risks, the
risks. In this respect, the fundamental principle shipowner may terminate the contract unless the
enshrined in the War Risk Clause for Time Charters is charterer nominates any other safe port which lies
that the shipowner is entitled to refuse to perform a within the contractual range for loading or discharging.
voyage ordered by the charterer if such voyage Similarly, if loading, respectively performance of the
exposes the ship to war risks; the determination of the voyage, have already commenced, the shipowner may
existence of such risks is left to the “reasonable require the charterer to nominate an alternative port,
judgement” of the master or shipowner. failing which it shall be entitled to disembark the cargo
The shipowner may, however, agree to execute the at “any safe port”.
charterer’s orders, even if this entails an exposition of The ship’s exposure to war risks may in some cases be
the ship to war risks. In such cases, the additional avoided by taking a different route. If the extra distance
costs will be borne by the charterer; these include, in of such alternative route exceeds 100 miles, the
particular, the war risk insurance premiums, i.e. the shipowner shall be entitled to charge an additional
instrument by which the shipowner mitigates the risk to freight, calculated in accordance with the contractual
which he accepts to expose the ship and the crew. The freight.
economic consequences of the increased risk are thus The proper functioning of such clauses presupposes a

IndustrIal Plants - May 2024
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