It’s common to see voyage charters which give the Charterers the right to nominate discharge ports in a particular range or country. However, what happens when they nominate and then change their mind?
This came up in a recent arbitration1 and the Tribunal applied the decision in The Jasmine B.2 That case tells us that where discharge ports are to be nominated and are nominated, then, as at the date of the nomination, they are effectively written into the charter. The ports can of course be changed later but the costs of any such change (for example extra freight) will be for the Charterers’ account. The issue in the recent arbitration was whether Charterers, having nominated a discharge port that contractually required the payment of extra freight (Taixing PRC), could change their minds and nominate a port that did not require payment of extra freight (Tianjin PRC). The answer was that they could change the port but could not avoid paying the extra freight, having nominated Taixing in the first place.
(1) London Arbitration 20/21 (2021) 1091 LMLN 2
(2) The Jasmine B [1992] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 39
Nick Burgess
Partner
Constantin von Hirsch
Trainee
