Olam International Ltd v Pacific Basin Supramax Ltd [2026] EWHC 2136 (Comm) (14 August 2026)

The Grande Island was time chartered on the NYPE form for a trip from Ghent to Nigeria. The C/P incorporated the BIMCO 2013 Piracy Clause,  paragraph (c), providing Owners with liberty to take preventative measures, such as re-routing, in an area exposed to Piracy risk. Whilst waiting off Warri, as ordered, events arose giving Owners grounds for piracy risk concerns and they took the Vessel to wait off Lagos instead.  An Arbitration Tribunal upheld Owners’ claim for hire during the period away from Warri, rejecting Charterers’ argument that as the parties had chosen to delete the more generous liberties in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the BIMCO clause, they had effectively made paragraph (c ) redundant. On appeal by Charterers, the Court upheld the Tribunal’s ruling, and the Vessel remained on-hire.

Read the full judgement here