The charterers have an obligation to make the cargo available for loading. The obligation may be expressed in the charterparty or implied if not in the charterparty.
The obligation is absolute with very limited exceptions. There are three stages to consider:
- Obtaining the cargo
- Bringing it to the loading place
- Loading
In some charterparties, a vessel can only become an arrived ship, when the cargo is available for loading and it is implied the cargo must be made available by the charterers in time to avoid any delay to the ship.
Where the charterparty provides that any time spent waiting for a berth will count as loading time, laytime will start running despite the lack of cargo and owners will be paid demurrage if there is a failure to load within laydays.
Where cargoes come from a particular source, for example a mine or group of mines, it is usual that such cargo will be made available to ships in the sequence of their arrival to load.
Typically the charterers are obliged to ensure cargo is available for the vessel to load in her ordinary turn.