Articles

A letter of indemnity does not need to be printed and signed to be valid and binding – in some trades it is common for charterparties to contain clauses that allow letters of indemnity to be ‘invoked’ by the charterer in an email. Whilst it does save time and administration, these clauses and their invocation do require some thought and care.

In conjunction with the UN World Diabetes Day, we join the effort to raise awareness among our readers of the risks of the disease, particularly to seafarers and the increased risk during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is what we can do to minimize risks, save lives and ensure safety at sea.

At our recent webinars dealing with the difficult and timely issue of crew changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, our presenters discussed the issue from the standpoint of seafarer wellbeing as well as the contractual challenges between owners and charterers faced with deviations for crew rotation. In this article we follow up on some of the questions put to them during the seminar.

At its November meeting, the Board of Gard P. & I. (Bermuda) Ltd. decided to change the Association’s premium policy and introduce an Owners’ General Discount. This will replace any reduction in the last instalment of the ETC for mutual Members.

We are pleased to report that as at 20 August 2020, on a consolidated basis, the financial position of Gard P. & I. (Bermuda) Ltd. and its subsidiaries remains robust and healthy. This is despite our half year results being negatively affected by several major incidents within the International Group Pool, and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In just over one month, California issued the largest penalty to date for violations of its at-berth emissions regulation and announced a further strengthenining of the same regulation, proposing to include emissions reduction requirements at additional ports and for new types of vessel such as ro-ro vessels and tankers.