Mamdouh Maritime Legal Solutions (MMLS) moved on Monday, November 5, 2018, to successfully execute an arrest order for the Zouros Group owned AHT, Dionysios Z (IMO 9586540), at Abu Rudeis in the Gulf of Suez. The South Sinai District Court issued Arrest Order No. 1/2018, executed by Chief Judge Yasser Arafah on October 23, 2018. Under a precedent setting decision for the region, Judge Arafah’s Warrant (No. 2072), disallows release of the tugboat under any financial guarantee and grants permission to the claimant Ships and Boats Oil Services LLC of ...

Malacca Strait Medley Singapore Arbitration 2/18 [(2018) 1008 LMLN 4] probably does not greatly develop the law or offer novel interpretation of common fixture wording. It does however illustrate some of the less familiar demurrage and also DA disputes that arise, and the wider problems that can result. Facts A heavily redacted account reveals only that under an amended GENCON 94 form the vessel was chartered to carry bulk iron briquettes which were loaded at a river port, and that disputes arose as outlined below and decided under agreed Singapore ...

Watson Farley & Williams is delighted to announce that Antonis Lagadianos and Evangelos Catsambas will be joining the firm’s Dispute Resolution Group in Athens as Partners as of 3rd December 2018. Antonis was previously head of both Ince & Co’s Piraeus office and their disputes practice in Greece, where he worked closely with fellow Partner Evangelos. Their appointment heralds the firm’s strategic decision to strengthen its high-end maritime disputes practice in key jurisdictions worldwide. With over 25 years’ experience and qualified as both a Greek and English lawyer, Antonis specialises ...

In an effort to constantly raise the bar in bringing value to the maritime and legal communities, the Emirates Maritime Arbitration Centre (EMAC) hosted ‘When things go wrong in offshore supply vessels (OSV) and Rig Charters – making the best of a bad situation session’ on Monday 12 November as part of ADIPEC 2018. As an interactive panel discussion, the session featured some of the leading maritime legal and commercial industry captains from the region and around the world, including Ian Henderson, Director, Clarksons Platou DMCC, Rania Tadros, Managing Partner, ...

The Marine Business Group of international law firm Hill Dickinson LLP is rolling out a programme of video blogs targeted at the maritime sector. The short three-minute vlogs will cover a variety of topics including briefings on recent judgements and new regulations, information about events that Hill Dickinson will be participating in, the management of maritime casualties in the commercial and legal context, and tips on the litigation risks faced by claimants and defendants and how to manage those risks. The first three, released this month (Nov), are presented by ...

Under a shipbuilding contract, the focus of the parties involved has always been on the way the funds are raised and also on ensuring the safety of the paid-in funds. Statistics from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry show that, “between January and May 2018, shipbuilding enterprises had revenues from their main business totalling RMB78.8 billion (US$12.4billion), a decrease of 4.8% compared with the same period the year before, and large-scale shipbuilding enterprises realized total profits of RMB0.93 billion, a drop of 67.8% … At present, the main ...

As part of its efforts to boost global trade, international maritime law specialist Hill Dickinson has come onboard as a platinum sponsor of London International Shipping Week 2019 (LISW19). David Wareing, Hill Dickinson Head of Marine and Trade, said: “We are delighted to support London International Shipping Week. This high profile event fits seamlessly with our senior management team’s ongoing strategy to re-position Hill Dickinson as a market leader alongside the top names in shipping and maritime services”. LISW19 takes the theme: International Trade In A Changing World. Julian Clark, ...

This case was dealt with on an expedited basis because its resolution depended upon the effect of the US sanctions re-imposed on 4 November 2018, which the parties agreed would certainly prevent payment of the Claimant’s claim. Speed-read The case is as much about contractual interpretation as it is about sanctions. The English High Court has considered the wording “exposure to sanctions” and ruled that the underwriters of a marine insurance policy could not rely on that wording to avoid a claim on the basis of a “risk of exposure” ...

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Norway’s DNB Bank ASA (“DNB”), as facility agent and security agent for a syndicate of banks comprising itself, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., BNP Paribas, Danish Ship Finance and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, in relation to a US$310m loan facility provided to Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (“Star Bulk”). Secured on 26 vessels in Star Bulk’s fleet, the facility consists of two tranches: (a) a first tranche of US$240m used to refinance Star Bulk’s debt under five existing facility agreements; and (b) a second tranche of ...

A German shipping company, MST Mineralien Schiffahrt Spedition und Transport GmbH (MST), pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in Portland, Maine, for obstruction of justice and for maintaining false official records to conceal deliberate pollution from one of its ships, the M/V Marguerita, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey B. Clark for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank for the District of Maine. MST pleaded guilty today to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and one count ...

International law firm Ince & Co LLP is delighted to announce that it has promoted Carrie Radford and Elle Young to the partnership, effective 1 November 2018. As part of their promotion they will co-lead Ince & Co’s marine insurance practice in London, an area of specialism for both Carrie and Elle. Carrie provides coverage advice, handles disputed claims and deals with liability defence work across all types of marine insurance. Her expertise includes dealing with hull and machinery, war risks, P&I, charterers’ risks, and other marine liability claims. An ...

In 1997, the International Maritime Organisation (“IMO”) adopted Annex VI to the International Convention for Prevention of Pollution from Ships (“MARPOL Convention”) in order to tackle the air pollution caused by shipping. On 1 July 2010, a revised Annex VI was entered into force and set stricter requirements seeking to control ships’ airborne emissions. The current global limit for sulphur content is 3.50% mass by mass (“m/m”). However, a new global limit of 0.50% m/m will become effective on 1 January 2020; a date which was set by the IMO’s ...

Hong Kong has the potential to become an even more attractive international hub for arbitration in the Far East if it develops a more global strategy and embraces foreign investment, according to Edward Yang Liu, Hill Dickinson counsel in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has its own unique advantages and favourable conditions and can provide convenient, neutral and diversified legal and dispute resolution services for international businesses. In particular, Hong Kong benefits from being the only Chinese jurisdiction which practices common law and adopts a common law system familiar to the ...

Dentons Rodyk is pleased to announce that in a case it handled, the Singapore Court of Appeal has changed the law on exclusive jurisdiction clauses. The Court has just handed down an extensive judgment saying that it will no longer follow its own previously-stated principle, namely, that the Singapore court is entitled to consider the merits of a defendant’s case when it applies to stay Singapore proceedings on account of an exclusive jurisdiction clause. This previous principle was expressed in no less than four of the Singapore Court of Appeal’s ...

Leading commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has appointed two senior hires to join its Hong Kong office. Counsel and registered foreign lawyer Edward Liu and Counsel Antony Cowie both joined on 22 October 2018. Edward, a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and a lawyer in P.R China, joins the team as counsel from Reed Smith Richards Butler where he spent about eight years in total in its shipping litigation team. In December 2017 he was listed by Lloyd’s List as one of the ‘Top Five in the Next Generation ...