The Uniform General Charter, or GENCON Charter Party, is a contract model of BIMCO (Baltic International Maritime Council) for the charter of ships per voyage (voyage charter). It is recommended for closed cargo in FIOS terms (free-in / out stowed) for which there is no contract.
The first version was published in 1922, having been revised in 1976 and 1994, the latter being the current version.
Charter per trip is the most commonly practiced on the market by charterers of spot or regular cargo and, unlike Time Charter, the shipowner does not charge daily rental of the ship, but a freight by MT or M3.
In the voyage charter, the charterer’s responsibility begins at the first port of embarkation upon receiving the Notice of Readiness, and ends at the end of operations at the last unloading port.
GENCON must be used with the CONGENBILL bill of lading, as one complements the other. Shipowners, charterers and operators in general adopt the GENCON form making logical changes and adjustments according to the negotiated conditions.
In our Ship Chartering course under GENCON CP we present the common practices in chartering per trip and the standard conditions of this contract.
