Demystifying EPCM contracts – What’s in an ‘M’?
Acronyms abound in the wide world of project delivery methods – D&C, DCM, ECI, EPC, EPCM. The list goes on. Even for those of us out there who speak the ‘lingo’, it can get quite confusing.
Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contracts are two project delivery methods commonly used in the mining, mineral processing and power industries. Despite the widespread use of these contract models, there remains a general level of mystification associated with EPCM contracts, and the distinction between EPC and EPCM contracts is not particularly well documented or understood.
In acronym alone, the two contract models appear [...]
Beware of Track Changes
Without doubt, technology has helped develop a truly global legal community, and lawyers today routinely work with clients around the world.
It is natural, therefore, that parties in contract negotiations would rely on technology to find changes in the document being negotiated, particularly where proposing amendments and developing clauses.
In the past, we would rely on the other side to direct us to amended clauses in a contract or to relay the substance of the proposed or incorporated amendment. In some instances, we would have to read the document from top to bottom to identify each and every change.
Today, thanks to technology, we rely on ‘track changes’ or compare software which [...]
Self-determination not litigation
Court resources are scarce. This is a universal truth, although no one seems to have cracked the code that will solve the problem.
The answer may be as simple as alternative dispute resolution. Sensible commercial parties have always engaged in ADR and more and more jurisdictions around the world are promoting a culture where you can’t expect your day in court until you have tried to sort out your dispute yourself.
But can ADR really be forced on to potential litigants?
Although ADR has been promoted in different ways in different countries, the aim has always been the same – to reduce legal costs, increase efficiency, bring about a cultural change and free up limited court resources. [...]
Ten years of Project Delivery in Australia
Perhaps because we live ‘Down Under’, Australians have always been somewhat contrarian. We like our beer cold, for example, and play our favourite game of football with a pointy ball instead of a round one.
So while the past ten years have provided an interesting economic backdrop for players in the construction industry – with the world economy moving from boom to near bust to (hopefully) better times ahead – for most of those years Australia’s construction industry simply surged ahead, even during the global economic downturn of 2008/2009.
Nonetheless, changes in the economy did lead to changes in how projects are delivered in Australia. Which begs the question – how has project d [...]
A return to Arbitration?
Disputes in the construction industry have historically lent themselves to the utilisation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes. During the boom times of the late nineties and early noughties, parties to construction contracts focussed less on hard dollar contracts and strict legal claims, and more on relationship based contracting and dispute avoidance, such that reliance on more formal ADR fell away.
With the return of more difficult times, ADR has again come under the spotlight. It seems widely accepted that arbitration in the domestic arena in Australia has become largely undistinguishable, in terms of time and money spent resolving disputes, from litigation.
Meanwhile [...]
