War Risk Clause in Port Call Quotes: Who Pays

The war-risk premium on a port call is normally paid by the party that owns or charters the vessel, not by the supplier quoting stores or fuel. What changes mid-call is who carries the extra cost after a port is reclassified as a war-risk area, and that is settled by the charterparty war-risk clause, the bunker or supply contract and the insurer's notice terms. A war risk clause port call review is therefore a contract question before it is a pricing question.

For chandlers, bunker suppliers, port agents and repair yards, the practical effect is narrower than the headlines suggest. The vessel's war-risk cover is the owner's problem. Your problem is which quote you sent, what it said about risk, and whether the buyer can pass a late premium back to you.

Who actually pays the war-risk premium on a port call?

The party bearing the commercial risk of the voyage pays the war-risk premium, and that is set by the charterparty, not by the supplier's invoice. In a time charter the owner usually insures the hull and the charterer pays additional war-risk premiums for orders into a declared area; in a voyage charter the freight normally absorbs it.

The legal background matters here. A 2022 paper in the WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs compares charterparty clauses with marine insurance terms and shows that the same wording can be treated as a condition, a warranty or an innominate term, with very different remedies when a dispute arises (Springer). A war-risk clause that reads clearly to a broker can behave differently in a claims file.

For a supplier, the chain runs like this:

• The owner or charterer holds the war-risk cover and pays the additional premium for the call.
• The master or operator decides whether the call proceeds, is delayed or is shifted to another port.
• The supplier is paid for goods delivered or services performed under the supply contract, subject to its own terms.

That third line is where most supplier disputes start, because the supply contract rarely mentions war risk at all.

What changes when a port is reclassified mid-call?

When a port is reclassified as a war-risk area during a call, three things change at once: the premium the owner or charterer pays, the master's willingness to stay, and the cost of the service you are already delivering. Only the third one is in your hands.

The premium effect can outlast the risk itself. A 2026 study on Nigeria-bound cargo, published on Zenodo, found that war-risk insurance charges persisted after piracy and kidnapping fell sharply, and that roughly $1.5 billion had been paid in war-risk-related charges in recent years (Zenodo). The paper attributes the persistence to institutional perception and market inertia rather than current sea risk. Suppliers quoting a port that has just been reclassified should expect the same lag.

Charterparty wording has been rewritten for exactly this scenario. A 2023 article in Lex Portus reviews how the Russo-Ukrainian conflict forced updates to force majeure and war-risk sections of charterparties and changed insurance policies and court practice (Lex Portus). Those redrafts are what a buyer is reading when they tell you the call is under review.

The current Middle East picture shows how fast the commercial side moves. According to gCaptain (October 2026), weekend attacks on Riyadh's main airport raised the risk of a wider escalation (gCaptain). According to Splash247 (October 2026), Japan's cabinet approved three bills to diversify energy imports, support tanker insurance and finance alternative oil transport routes away from Hormuz (Splash247). Both moves feed directly into how owners price and accept calls in the region.

What a supplier can and cannot recover mid-call

A supplier can recover costs it has already committed to under its own contract terms. It cannot recover the vessel's war-risk premium, and it should not try to price it into a quote as if it were a freight surcharge.

The distinction matters because suppliers often see the premium on a port cost estimate and assume it is theirs to absorb or pass on. Port cost estimates and proforma disbursement accounts list many owner-side items. Your invoice covers what you delivered.

ItemWho bears itSupplier action Additional war-risk premium on hullOwner or charterer under the charterpartyNone; do not net it into your price Stores already delivered when the call is cancelledBuyer, under the supply contractInvoice against signed delivery and cancellation terms Bunker barge waiting time after a holdWhoever the supply contract namesState demurrage or waiting terms before nomination Re-routing to a substitute portBuyer, if the substitute is outside the agreed scopeQuote the substitute port as a separate offer

Seven clauses to put in every high-risk port quote

Seven clauses turn a war-risk conversation into a document you can point to later. Add them to the quote template once and reuse them at every port where risk is being discussed.

1. Validity period. State how long the price holds, and that a change in the port's risk classification may require revalidation.
2. Risk reclassification notice. Say that if the port is declared a war-risk or listed area after the quote date, either side may request a revised offer before delivery.
3. Cancellation and standby. Define what is payable if the vessel holds at anchorage or the call is cancelled after nomination.
4. Delivery point. Name the exact delivery location, so a shift from berth to anchorage or to a lay-by is a variation, not a dispute.
5. Force majeure and access. Cover port closure, naval restriction and convoy scheduling, with a clear notice period.
6. Payment terms. Keep credit terms short for ports under active discussion, and state the currency and the paying entity.
7. Compliance statement. Confirm the goods and the counterparty are screened, since sanctions and conflict cover now overlap in underwriting (Journal of Posthumanism).

The commercial risk of a port call is spread across pre-fixture, fixture, execution, post-fixture and claims stages, as a 2016 review in the Journal of Shipping and Ocean Engineering sets out (David Publishing). Clauses 1 to 5 above sit in the execution stage, which is where suppliers lose money without ever seeing a charterparty.

Why the conversation has to start before the call

The supplier who wins the reclassification argument is the one already talking to the right person at the manager's office. A port call is a berth booking to the port authority, a service opportunity to the agent and a data point to the analyst, as Hellenic Shipping News describes it (Hellenic Shipping News). For a supplier, it is a short window in which the technical superintendent and the purchasing team decide who gets the order.

That window closes fast when a call is under review. Reaching the operations and procurement contacts before the vessel arrives means the clause conversation happens while you can still shape the quote.

How VesselReach helps

VesselReach, built by CatalystIQ, turns vessel movements at your target ports into conversations with the people who decide, so the war-risk conversation starts early.

• Vessel intelligence and AI company targeting. VesselReach shows vessels near your ports plus scheduled and expected arrivals, and identifies the owner, manager or operator behind each one. That means you reach the right company before the call is confirmed, not after it is cancelled.
• Decision-maker discovery. VesselReach finds operations, procurement and technical superintendent contacts by role. That means your clause checklist reaches the person who can accept it.
• Multichannel outreach and follow-ups. VesselReach runs staged email, WhatsApp and phone outreach with automated follow-ups. That means a quote sent before arrival still gets answered when the port situation changes.

Book a VesselReach demo to see how it works for your ports.