CONWARTIME clause

The CONWARTIME clause is a standard war-risk provision drafted by BIMCO (the Baltic and International Maritime Council) and incorporated into voyage and time Charter contracts worldwide. When a war, conflict, or declared dangerous zone is judged to pose an "objectively reasonable" threat, the clause entitles the shipowner or master to deviate from the agreed route, await safer conditions, or cancel the voyage entirely; the charterer cannot override that decision. The clause does not transfer liability for cargo losses during a diversion, but it does release the owner from any obligation to enter the zone. It became publicly prominent when P&I clubs began withdrawing war-risk cover for the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz in early 2026, triggering the clause across hundreds of active charter contracts simultaneously .

CONWARTIME 2004 is the current operative version. The clause defines a "war risk" broadly to include acts of war, piracy, terrorism, civil strife, mines, and actions by governments or irregular forces that render a passage unsafe. Its geographic scope follows a joint list published by the Lloyd's Joint War Committee; once a region is listed, the clause activates automatically without requiring a formal declaration of war. Charterers who insist on transit after the clause has been invoked do so at their own risk and must indemnify the owner against any additional premium or loss. The practical effect is that a mass P&I withdrawal, as occurred in the Hormuz crisis, makes large sections of the Charter market commercially inoperative even before a physical blockade is in place.

The clause is significant beyond any single conflict because it represents the mechanism by which insurance risk translates into physical shipping decisions. When hull and P&I underwriters list a zone as high-risk, the CONWARTIME threshold is almost automatically met. This means Lloyd's Joint War Committee listings, which are revised quarterly or on an emergency basis, carry direct operational consequences for commodity flows: oil, Liquefied Natural Gas, grain, and container freight can all be stranded simultaneously. The clause's continued status after formal Ceasefire declarations also matters: it remained triggered across Gulf Charter contracts in June 2026 even after a diplomatic agreement was announced, because mines remained in the water and no underwriter had cleared the zone .