Tramp bulk cargo pooling agreement
MARITIME SERVICE: BIMCO’s Documentary Committee, which met in Singapore on 23 April, has approved for publication a new standard pooling agreement for dry and liquid bulk cargoes, called POOLCON.
“POOLCON is a voluntary and negotiable standard agreement for establishing tramp shipping pools and is based on the pool managers time chartering in ships in their own name from the pool participants. We have had a lot of requests to develop a tramp pooling agreement in recent years and I am delighted that we can now meet that demand with the new POOLCON. We also plan to develop and publish later this year an “agency based” version of POOLCON where the pool manager manages the pool fleet”, says Grant Hunter, BIMCO’s Chief Officer for Legal and Contractual Affairs.
Given the highly sensitive nature of pooling agreements in relation to EU competition regulations, BIMCO is liaising with the European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) to set up a meeting with the European Commission’s competition directorate DGCOMP to discuss the key principles of the agreement prior to publication.
POOLCON will be published along with detailed explanatory notes during the summer.
Source: BIMCO / maritimedanmak.dk
