1 INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, owing to high rates in freight and hire and the ban on single-hull tankers, the shipbuilding market boomed. The shipbuilding yards, especially those of Korea and China, were flooded with new orders for the construction, in particular, of major container ships, chemical tankers and double-hull tankers. Overcapacity, and the sudden emergence of the world economic crisis in 2008, caused a disturbance in trade, a sharp drop in freight rates and, consequently, the cancellation of contracts. Disputes resulting in court or arbitration proceedings were inevitable.