On the afternoon of September 26, 2019, the "Press Conference and Seminar of Standard Ship Repair Contract" hosted by Shanghai Branch of China Maritime Arbitration Commission (CMAC) was successfully held in Shanghai. The conference was strongly supported by China Shipbuilding Industry Association and China Shipowners Association, and attracted about 150 colleagues from industry associations, law firms and enterprises to attend.

The "Standard Ship Repair Contract", drafted by industry experts, had been commissioned by the Shanghai Branch of CMAC since 2017. After several rounds of expert forums, field research of the shipyard, extensive consultation of opinions from various aspects, and comprehensive judgment experience of the case, the final draft was finalized in both Chinese and English, and officially released at the conference.

Ms. XIE Changqing, Deputy Secretary-General of CMAC first gave a welcome speech. She expressed her sincere thanks to the industry experts who gave support to the standard contract drafting process, as well as China Shipbuilding Industry Association, China Shipowners association, major shipyards and shipowners for their strong support. She expressed the hope that through the formulation and promotion of standard contracts, the industries and enterprises can determine business risks, standardize operation, improve risk control ability, and more deeply integrate into the global economic and trade and shipping industry development. CMAC hopes to provide fair, impartial, professional and efficient arbitration services to facilitate the healthy development of the ship repair market. Ms. HUANG Shu, Deputy Secretary-General of China Shipowners Association said in her speech that the ship repair contract focused on the design of the main problems which cause the parties' disputes and the ship repair contract keeps pace with times and reflects the current concerns of the ship repair industry, especially the consideration of environmental protection. The formulation of this standard contract will help standardize and improve the ship repair market, hoping for strengthening cooperation in the future and contributing to the healthy development of the industry. Mr. LI Zhengjian, Deputy Secretary-General of China Shipbuilding Industry Association, chief expert and senior engineer of China Society of Naval Architects, expressed his gratitude to all parties involved in the development of the ship repair contract in his speech, and looked forward to the close communication and cooperation between CMAC and the association. He said that the release of the standard contract is of significance to the inheritance, sublimation and progress of the ship repair industry, which is conducive to improving the risk control system of the industry and promoting the integration with international industry norms.

(From top to bottom, they are Ms. XIE Changqing, Deputy Secretary-General of CMAC; Ms. HUANG Shu, Deputy Secretary-General of China Shipowners Association; Mr. LI Zhengjian, Deputy Secretary-General of China Shipbuilding Industry Association, chief expert and senior engineer of China Society of Naval Architects)

Mr. YU Feng, arbitrator of CMAC and the partner of Beijing Zhonglun (Shanghai) Law Firm, as the author of the ship repair contract, introduced the ship repair contract in detail from six aspects: the drafting background of the contract, the main issue of the amendment party, the ship lien, the contract price settlement, waste disposal and environmental protection. Combined with the development status of ship repair industry and years of experience, through the analysis of its agent cases, from the perspective of risk control, he deeply interpreted the background of the key terms and highlights of the contract. Finally, Mr. YU feng also provided suggestions on how to use the ship repair contract according to the situation of the enterprises.

(Mr. YU Feng, the partner of Beijing Zhonglun (Shanghai) Law Firm)

Later, Mr. LI Zhengjian shared his experience in handling key ship repair cases as an arbitrator and years of enterprise practice around the risk control of ship repair. In particular, he expounded the key points of ship repair risk control from legal, commercial, financial and business perspectives, and expressed his views on how ship repair enterprises should deal with industry fluctuations and avoid contract risks.

(Mr. LI Zhengjian, Deputy Secretary-General of China Shipbuilding Industry Association, chief expert and senior engineer of China Society of Naval Architecture and Engineering)

Ms. Xu Fei, Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Branch of CMAC delivered a keynote speech on how to establish a standard arbitration clause. She summarized and listed the non-standard arbitration clauses in the cases accepted by the Shanghai Branch of CMAC, clarified the provisions and essential elements of effective arbitration clauses in China's relevant laws and regulations, and analyzed the elements of arbitration clauses from the perspective of the particularity of maritime law and put forward suggestions.

(Ms. Xu Fei, Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Branch of CMAC)

By the end of the seminar, Mr. YU Shicheng, arbitrator of CMAC, the former Party Secretary and professor of Shanghai Maritime University, made a summary of the conference and delivered a closing speech. He said that the standard contract issued by CMAC is beneficial to reduce the probability of disputes in practice and standardize the settlement of disputes. It also emphasizes that arbitration, as a way of dispute settlement in accordance with national strategy, has irreplaceable advantages in foreign-related disputes settlement.

In this seminar, the experts, scholars, arbitrators, enterprise representatives and lawyers of the ship repair industry had in-depth exchanges and discussions on the main terms of the ship repair contract and the risk control of enterprises. They shared the hot spots and frontier trends of the ship repair industry, and put forward a series of practical and practical valuable suggestions.