Charterparty Bilateral Contract

Charterparty Bilateral Contract

All Charterparties are bilateral contracts, that is, Charterparties are agreed to by both parties, the Shipowners and the Charterers. However, it is important to realise that it is extremely rare for both parties to agree to be mutually bound by a blank form of charter party without any amendments.

Many Shipowners and Charterers frequently use Proforma Contracts as the basis for future negotiations, in other words, previous fixtures which had been negotiated and all their terms agreed upon, so that a new negotiation would only have to require agreement on basic relevant changes such as rates of freight and demurrage or hire, lay/can dates, ship’s description (unless the same ship is carrying the next cargo), cargo’s description and quantity.