Ναύλοι, ναυλοσύμφωνα και η διαφοροποίηση αυτών βάσει των φάσεων του ναυτιλιακού κύκλου

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is the investigation of a possible influence of the shipping cycle on the differentiation of charter parties of the time charter and the voyage charter. The research that accomplished throughout the check of the terms of charter parties which was performed in the stages of trough and peak of the shipping cycle confirm this bond. Both of these kinds of charter perform a differentiation on the terms according to the stage of shipping cycle. The terms that vary based on the stage of the shipping cycle are categorized and create some other classes. These main categories are three. The terms that can be characterized as financial belong to the first class. Also, there are terms that relate to the safety of the ship and the crew. Finally, there is a smaller category that consists of terms which correlate with the strategy that the shipowner tries about the ship charter and the choices that he makes in order to promote it. The category that incudes the financial terms, includes also terms of great significance. In time charter there are terms like ballast bonus, delivery of the ship in the charterer, the payment and the period of this performance, bunker clause, the spending of the charterers in the ship, the payment of expenses for the ship and the crew in every port and the cleaning of holds. These terms, regardless of the size of sum that they occupy with, obviously differentiate according to the situation that dominate on the market. Furthermore, terms like ballast bonus or the terms about the gas oil which will be used by the ship consider to be of high importance. In the same category, the time charter includes terms like “More Or Less Owners Option, More Or Less Charterers Option” or FIO and FIOST. The moment the Lay time starts, the use of terms “SHINC”, “SHEX”, “unless used” and “if used time not to count”, the calculation of the time of loading and unloading and the pace of them and finally the way we calculate the time of SHEX belong to this class. Then, the category that correlates with the safety of the ship consists of terms that both in the voyage charter and in the time charter are accepted exclusively in periods where the market is in low level. In majority of cases, these terms identify with each other and it occurs both in two kinds of charters. Many of these terms, that we met, is the nature of the cargo (only permitted cargo and intended cargo), the route of time charter (route and intended route), the selection of regions the ship will travel in voyage charter, the sail of the ship when it’s in need of an icebreaker, the capacity of the ports for loading and unloading to allow a ship and the choice for loading-unloading from the wharf or anchorage. Lastly, we meet the final category which is associated with the strategy the shipowner follows in respect to the utilization of his ship. Through these terms, on the one hand the shipowner defines under which conditions he will charter, on the other, he defines also the next charter of his ship after the end of the previous one. In this class there are some terms like the delivery of the ship in time charter, the temporal margins that are given in order to be validated a charter, the selection of ports with traffic jam or not and ultimately the choice of maritime agent.