A new Charterparty is now available for the export of Australian grain, specifically tailored for Australian conditions. Grain Trade Australia (GTA) has developed the new Charterparty, known as AusGrain 2013, at the request of its members.

Prior to deregulation of the Australian wheat export market, AWB was the custodian of the Australian Wheat Charter (“Austwheat 1990”) which had become one of the most commonly used charter forms in the Australian export grain trade.

GTA co-ordinated the appointment of a Charterparty Development Committee, a sub-committee of the GTA Commerce Committee, which consisted of industry representatives with experience in chartering bulk grain ships.

Geoff Farnsworth, a GTA director and chair of the committee, said that having a standard-form charter contract that covers contemporary issues is critical due to the industry’'s reliance on the export market, particularly into Asian markets.

The extreme volatility in shipping rates experienced over the last three years makes the use of a commercially robust Charterparty an absolute necessity for those engaged in export activities,” Mr Farnsworth said.

It is important for Shipowners and Charterers to have a sensible starting point for negotiations.

Also one of the key requests from members was to provide a dispute resolution process based in this region, which the GTA arbitration process is ideally placed to be able to offer.”

The committee met several times to develop an appropriate draft document, which was then provided to shipowners and brokers for initial feedback.