9. Readiness of a vessel for cargo handling.

9.1. The master has to tender the Notice of Readiness of a vessel for loading or discharging at official NSCP working hours after receiving of free pratique (after completion of immigrations, customs and sanitary formalities) as well as after completion of discharging if the vessel is to be loaded soon afterwards.

9.2. According to the Notice of Readiness cargo holds of a vessel have to be dry, fully cleaned and supplied with necessary equipment and materials for cargo han­dling.

9.3. A vessel is considered to be ready for loading of bulk cargo if:

- there are clear freeboard marks as well as easy readable scales of immersion, permitting to determine quantity of cargo loaded according to vessel's draft;

- she has no ballast water on board or its quantity can be discharged by vessel's means without interruption in loading;

- a vessel is ready to receive the particular cargoes.

9.4. The Notice of Readiness should be considered to be accepted only when a vessel is actually ready to load/discharge agreed cargoes to/from all cargo holds in question, the complete set of cargo documents is available, as well as customs, quarantine, sanitary and other formalities are completed. Readiness of a vessel in accordance with NCSP's safety requirements for cargo-

handling (Appendix No.1) is fixed in the "Statement of Readiness of a Vessel tor safety cargo-handling operations" and is signed by authorized representatives of NCSP and a vessel.

9.5. If required, readiness of cargo holds for loading/discharging should be con­firmed by corresponding inspections (commissions).

A representative of NCSP puts down corresponding remark on master's Notice of Readiness after checking of readiness of cargo holds indicating the time of the laytime commencement.

10. Calculation of laytime

10.1. Laytime is understood as amount of working time allowed to NCSP accord­ing to agreed rates of contract and/or present Terms and Conditions for discharg­ing or loading the cargo including its separation, weighing, normal lashing/uniashing (as determined by IMO standards), trimming, opening and closing of cargo hatches, preparation of documents for loaded/discharged cargo, dry cleaning of cargo holds after discharging, bunkering and water supply, if it is impossible to carry this out during cargo operations; mooring/unmooring in connection with cargo opera­tion execution having regard to specialization of port berths. If it is necessary to carry out special lashing/uniashing of cargoes on vessel's request or time-con­suming preparatory works for discharging the cargo due to its condition (explod­ing of compacted and hardened cargoes, its fragmentation, pneumatic crumbling as well as re-packaging, discharging of wet or damaged packages, handling of toxic and flammable cargoes using gas-masks, etc.), NCSP obtains additional time (equal to actually spend time), which extends laytime.

10.2. Laytime is calculated in weather working days by division of mass (quantity) of cargo in tons (m³, pieces) by a rate of loading/discharging of cargo on a vessel of certain classification group.

White loading cargoes on a vessel with different rates, the mass of the different cargoes is divided by fixed rates of loading in weather working days. If loading/discharging is carried out not to/from all cargo spaces (cargo holds, tweendecks, decks of ro-ro vessels), the fixed rate is multiplied by number of cargo hatches stated and is divided by the total number of vessel's cargo hatches. The time required to carry out auxiliary operations, that cannot be performed during cargo operations, shall be added to laytime.

10.3. When calculating laytime, days off and official national holidays as well as time after 15.00 hours on Saturdays or on the day preceding holidays, until 08.00 hours on Mondays or on the day that follows holidays are not counted as laytime regardless whether handling of a vessel is carried out or not.

10.4. Laytime shall commence from 16.00 hours if Notice of Readiness is ten­dered before 12.00 hours, and from 08.00 hours of the following working day if

Notice of Readiness is tendered after 12.00 hours.

10.5. Laytime is interrupted when cargo operations and auxiliary operations taken in account in laytime can not be executed due to the following reasons:

• bad weather conditions (precipitation, frost, heat, strong wind), strikes and other force-majeure circumstances and their consequences;

• vessel's, charterer's or cargo owner's fault;

• the lack of transport units in volumes stipulated in the contracts between NCSP and clients for cargoes that are handled only by direct handling method.

10.6. Actual time used for discharging cargoes from lockers, tanks and other spaces that are not fit for normal work of people and machinery as well as dis­charging of substandard cargoes and cargoes in damaged condition is to be added to laytime.