Disputing a Demurrage Claim at a Bangladesh Port, Start With the Statement of Facts

The most-cited demurrage case involving Chittagong in English law isn't really about a port delay at all, it's about 35 containers of raw cotton that arrived at the port between May and June 2011 and, as far as the public record shows, are still sitting there. MSC v Cottonex ended up at the Court of Appeal arguing about whether demurrage can run forever when nobody collects the cargo. It's an extreme case, but it points at something every charterer fixing into Bangladesh should take seriously: getting cargo off the dock and to a willing receiver is not a formality here, and a dispute over who pays for the time it sits can get genuinely complicated. Charterparty wording, bills of lading, claim documents, contemporaneous records and Bangladesh legal advice control the commercial position; this article is operational guidance, not a substitute for appointed counsel or insurers. Apply the fixture wording and current local practice; do not treat checklist examples as automatic entitlement.

Start with the Statement of Facts, because that's what any dispute actually turns on

Every demurrage argument we've seen resolved or lost came down to the quality of the Statement of Facts, the chronological, jointly signed record of what happened at the port call, from NOR tender through to completion. If your agent's SOF is sloppy, late, or missing signatures from the right parties, you've handed the other side an opening to dispute the whole calculation regardless of what actually happened on the water. A C&F agent or customs broker on the ground who keeps real-time, accurate SOF entries, not a reconstructed version assembled after the vessel's already sailed, is the single most useful thing standing between you and a contested claim.

Where Chittagong-specific disputes actually originate

NOR validity is the most common fight, and it usually centers on the WIBON/WIPON wording we've covered elsewhere on this blog, was the vessel genuinely "arrived" when NOR was tendered, or was it still outside the zone the clause actually covers. The second most common is disputed time allocation around lighterage: if your cargo discharged partly via lighterage vessel and partly at the jetty, who's responsible for proving how much of the delay was congestion versus weather versus documentation hold-up. Customs-related hold-ups, a valuation query, an inspection flag, a certificate gap, also generate disputes over whether that dwell time counts as laytime or falls under a WICCON-type exception.

Time bars will end your claim before the merits even get discussed

Most charter parties set a claim submission deadline, commonly 60 to 90 days after completion of discharge, and English courts and arbitrators apply these strictly. A claim missing even one required supporting document inside that window can be ruled time-barred regardless of how strong the underlying case is. For a Chittagong call specifically, where SOF signing, customs documentation and lighterage records can be scattered across multiple parties, getting the complete package together inside the time bar takes real coordination, start gathering documents the moment the vessel completes discharge, not when someone decides to file a claim.

What the Cottonex case actually teaches a charterer

The Court of Appeal ultimately held that demurrage can't run indefinitely once there's no realistic prospect the underlying contract will ever be performed, once a shipper has effectively abandoned the goods, the carrier's "legitimate interest" in keeping the contract alive runs out, and so does the demurrage clock. For a charterer, the practical lesson isn't the legal doctrine itself, it's that cargo nobody will collect at a Bangladeshi port can become a genuinely expensive, genuinely slow-moving problem, and confirming your receiver's actual intent and capacity to take delivery before you fix is worth more than any clause drafting after the fact.

The practical sequence if you're disputing a claim

Get the SOF and compare it line by line against your own vessel reports and agent correspondence. Check NOR tender circumstances specifically against whatever Ws your charter party actually included. Flag any customs or documentation delay separately, since that's often the most defensible category to dispute. And move fast, the time bar doesn't care how complicated the underlying facts are.