GAFTA Fumigation Rules 132: new grounds for demurrage contestation?

Interlegal lawyers defended the Seller’s CIF claim on demurrage recovery arisen at the discharge port.

he Client applied to Interlegal due to the Buyer’s rejection to recognize demurrage partially at the discharge port, since non-recognized time was spent for issuing Gas Free Certificate on the absence of hazardous fumigation evaporations in the vessel holds before commencement of discharging operations. The Seller’s principal argument was that issuing such certificate was not provided by the Contract, nor were provided GAFTA Fumigation Rules 132 incorporated therein.

Based on analysis of the contract provisions, Interlegal lawyers justified lawfulness of the Seller’s claim and absence of its liability for issuing Gas Free Certificate jointly with correlated expenses. The Buyer paid demurrage in full.

Please note that all the contract based on GAFTA proformas from 01.09.2018 incorporate GAFTA Fumigation Rules 132, which prescribe for issuing such certificate but do not govern the issue of such procedure impact on laytime calculation for the parties to commercial deal. We recommend the parties to arrange issuing Gas Free Certificate and its impact on laytime calculation in the process of concluding the contract.

Interlegal junior lawyer Dmytro Reznichenko and lawyer Valeria Ivanova, supervised by senior associate Ekaterina Gadetskaya, led the case.