GENCON 2022: MARKING THE CENTENARY

by John Weale

BIMCO’s GENCON 94 is the industry’s most used voyage charter party for bulk trade. It finds its roots in the 1922 Uniform General Charter and was last revised in 1994. GENCON is currently being updated to reflect changes in industry practice and legal developments. Indeed, shipowners now operate in an environment which is much more tightly controlled, especially in terms of the environment and safety – not only regulatory changes such as advance cargo declarations and the IMSBC Code, but also issues of degradation of the sea and the air. There have been several puzzling English cases concerning the dividing line between the parties where the Charterer assumes responsibility for loading and discharge. And more recently, the English Supreme Court has revisited the concept of seaworthiness. All this required a great rethinking of the document.

Exclusively for ETL, Chairman of the GENCON revision sub-committee at BIMCO and Former Vice President and Director of Fednav, John Weale, discusses the main features and novelties of GENCON 2022. John Weale’s article appears in ETL issue no. 4 of 2022.