AGA Partners achieved another victory for the Client, an international trader, in a high-stakes London arbitration, securing a 180-day demurrage claim and consequential damages. 

The case that started as a usual CFR FO trade deal for Ukrainian wheat resulted in a multilayer dispute, focused on a highly lengthy and ineffective manual discharge of a Panamax vessel at the port of Chittagong, Bangladesh. 

 Facing a significant demurrage claim, the defendant buyer raised a number of defences, primarily based on an allegedly wrongful refusal of the shipowner to place heavy caterpillar crawler cranes on the vessel’s deck for discharge of the cargo onto barges alongside the vessel. 

In addition, the defendant claimed that the shipowner contributed to the delay in discharging operations by refusing to provide fresh water, electricity and bathroom facilities to more than 100 stevedores involved in manual discharge for almost half a year. 

The above and many other issues were addressed by the AGA team during arbitration proceedings, resulting in a secure victory for the Client/claimant. 

The Tribunal found that the shipowner was entitled to refuse any discharging method which it reasonably considered could expose the crew and the ship to damage. Further, the shipowner was not obliged to arrange any supplies or to provide any facilities to the stevedores working on board the vessel. 

As a consequence, the claimant seller was awarded the full amount of demurrage, stevedoring costs, and the costs of expert reports and legal opinions advanced during arbitration. 

The success in arbitration was achieved through the efforts of Partner Ivan Kasynyuk, Senior Associate Ievgen Boiarskyi and Associate Vasyl Radetskyi.