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Lloyd's Register Safety Alert

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

August 20, 2012

Safety Alert: Acceptance of equipment for use on Singapore-registered ships.


Applicabilty: Applicability: Owners and operators of all Singapore-registered ships
 

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA Singapore) has issued Survey Circular No.1/2012 detailing requirements for acceptance of statutory equipment for use on Singapore-registered ships. ‘Statutory equipment’ means life-saving appliances, marine pollution prevention, fire protection, navigation and radiocommunication equipment as required by IMO conventions such as SOLAS, MARPOL and COLREG.


The Circular requires that statutory equipment is type approved and fully certificated to the applicable IMO requirements by any one of the nine recognised organisations (ROs) authorised by MPA Singapore, namely the classification societies ABS, BV, CCS, DNV, GL, KR, LR, NK, and RINA. Such approved equipment shall bear the marking of the RO that carried out the type approval. The marking shall be traceable to the certification and test documentation for the equipment.
 

The requirements apply to all ships, but equipment provided on board before 1 September, 2012, that does not fully meet the requirements of the Circular may be accepted by an RO if they consider it acceptable for continued use on board. Any equipment provided on board after 1 September, 2012, that does not fully meet the requirements of the Circular will be considered on a case-by-case basis by MPA Singapore.
 

The Circular requires the ROs authorised by MPA Singapore to confirm the statutory equipment is acceptable on board Singapore-registered vessels before issuing a ‘Statement of Acceptance’ on their behalf. Where applicable, the confirmation will be carried out as part of the new construction survey process. For existing ships, the confirmation survey will be carried out at the next intermediate or renewal statutory survey, whichever occurs earlier.
 

What should owners and operators do now?
 

Shipowners and operators should ensure that type approval certification for all of the ship’s statutory equipment is available for any confirmation survey. Additionally, shipowners and operators should ensure that any new equipment placed on board fully meets the type approval and marking requirements of the Circular.
 

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