Paris MoU Issues Report on Port State Control

The Paris MoU published its report on 2013’s worldwide flag performance, “White, Grey and Black Lists.” The report indicates further improvements towards quality shipping.

Last year Thailand and the United States of America were moved up to the White List. This year Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland moved from the Grey List to the White List. Georgia, Lebanon, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Libya and Albania moved from the Black List to the Grey List.

There are now 46 flags on the White List, one more than last year. The Paris MoU has France leading the list, followed by Norway and Sweden. Several flags have made a significant move upwards on the White List in the top 10: Norway, Italy, the United Kingdom and Finland. Other flags have made a significant move downwards in the White List and are no longer in the top 10: Bahamas and Greece.

Recognized organizations (RO) are delegated by flag states and carry out most of the statutory surveys on behalf of flags. For this very reason it is important to monitor their performance, the Paris MoU said. The best performing RO over the period 2011-2013 is Lloyds Register, followed by American Bureau of Shipping and Det Norske Veritas. Korean Register of Shipping has dropped out of the top five and has been replaced by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai.

According to the report, the worst performing RO is INCLAMAR. For several years a joint submission with the Tokyo MoU to IMO has addressed the correlation between flags and ROs working on their behalf. For the first time this information has been published in the Annual Report. The combination of the Republic of Moldova with Dromon Bureau of Shipping and Maritime Lloyd (Georgia), as well as Togo with International Naval Surveys Bureau, and Sierra Leone with Phoenix Register of Shipping resulted each in a 9% detention rate over a three-year rolling period.

The introduction of the New Inspection Regime in 2011 has also had an impact on the 2013 figures. A decrease in total number of inspections has continued, as well as the total number of deficiencies. Compared to 2012 the detention percentage has slightly increased to 3.8%. Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom contribute most to the overall inspection efforts in terms of percentage.

With a total of 28 ships refused access to Paris MoU ports in 2013, this was the highest number recorded since 2005. Although it was anticipated that the number of banned ships would rise, an increase of 87% (from 15 in 2012) compared to last year was not anticipated. Multiple detentions was the most common reason for banning in 2013.

With 1,188 inspections and 154 detentions the ships flying a black listed flag score a detention rate of 12.96%. For ships flying a grey listed flag the detention rate is 7.64% (851 inspections, 65 detentions) and ships flying a white listed flag 2.82% (15,551 inspections and 439 detentions).

The full 2013 Annual Report has been published on parismou.org.