June 2015
In keeping pace with the fast-changing shipping and offshore industry, BIMCO maintains a hands-on approach to the development of contractual standards, observing trends in commercial practice and legal developments.
With a long standing history of facilitating commercial operations in the shipping industry, BIMCO, the world’s largest international shipping association, remains proactive and responsive.
REVISIONS OF EXISTING FORMS
SUPPLYTIME 2005 is BIMCO’s bestselling standard document and is the most widely used
standard form contract in the offshore industry. BIMCO is planning to revise it to provide users with a greater degree of certainty and incorporate the latest edition of BIMCO standard clauses, including dispute resolution and CONWARTIME. Due to the importance of this document, the revision will be thorough. Before it is adopted, the proposed draft will go through a consultation process, providing representatives of the users of SUPPLYTIME 2005 an opportunity to
review and comment on the suggested changes.
Another widely used standard contract, dry cargo time charterparty NYPE 93, is also subject to revision, with the aim of bringing the document up to date through the incorporation of common clauses and amendments frequently used in practice. The revised contract should offer a more “global” appeal than its predecessor.
NEWCOMERS
The Darwinist nature of the shipping and offshore industries continues to also spur development of new contracts for which there are currently no standard forms. As a response to the recent,
significant increase in the trading of LNG on the spot market, BIMCO is creating a new contract, LNGVOY, for the transportation of LNG under voyage terms. The objective is to add flexibility to the spot market and provide end-users with alter-native means to manage risk and costs. Other developments of new contracts include a standard novation agreement for time charterparties and a standard term sheet for ship financing.
The development of some of the new contract forms has however attracted some scepticism, and the significance of the new forms will depend on their acceptance and actual usage by industry participants once released. Even if the new documents are not as widely used as, for example, SUPPLYTIME 2005 or NYPE 93, their existence as standard documents developed by market participants can make them important resources in the negotiation or consideration of other
contracts within the relevant area of application.
An example of a contract that has not been frequently used, but which provides an interesting point of reference, is the standard new building contract NEWBUILDCON which was released by BIMCO in 2007. In his second edition of the commentary to the Norwegian Shipbuilding Contract 2000, Øystein Meland, partner at Wikborg Rein, includes references and comparisons to
the solutions under NEWBUILDCON. This second edition of the commentary will be
released shortly, the previous edition being the main authority on the Norwegian Shipbuilding Contract 2000 and the standard work on shipbuilding related matters under Norwegian law.
Wikborg Rein is closely following BIMCO’s revisions of existing contracts and development of new contracts, having Øystein Meland on BIMCO’s Documentary Committee. We will keep our clients and contacts updated on mportant developments through news-letters, updates and seminars.