During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen a decrease in the inspections within 2020 (-28% compared to 2019) with numbers bouncing back in 2021( -14% compared to 2019), expecting a full recovery in 2022.
The PSC inspections during 2021 marked the top 5 categories of deficiencies with a list of MLC, Fire Safety, Safety of navigation, Certificate & documentation, and Life saving appliances. The top-5 listing is more or less identical over the last 3 years with a total in the range of 62-64% each year of all deficiencies worldwide (Table 1)
| Deficiency Category | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |||
| % | Rank | % | Rank | % | Rank | |
| MLC | 12.02 | 3 | 14.83 | 1 | 15.69 | 1 |
| Fire Safety | 15.16 | 1 | 13.32 | 2 | 13.42 | 2 |
| Safety of navigation | 9.04 | 5 | 9.86 | 5 | 11.49 | 3 |
| Certificate & Documentation | 15.13 | 2 | 13.08 | 3 | 11.19 | 4 |
| Life saving Appliances | 10.76 | 4 | 10.65 | 4 | 10.61 | 5 |
Table1: Top-5 Deficiency Category Listing (Global regime, ocean going ships > 1,000 gt) Source www.risk4sea.com
Since COVID-19 created a lot of problems among crew (replacement/documents/travelling restrictions), it is expected that the MLC Category (including working and living conditions – deficiency codes 09### & 18###) marked a 16% of overall findings during 2021. The most common deficiency code across the globe was the code 15150-ISM, however this is not a stand alone code because PSCOs use this as an umbrella code to sum up the inspection findings. Besides ISM, the most common deficiency code worldwide during 2021 for all ship types was 07105 – Fire doors/openings in fire-resisting divisions with a percentage of 2.27% (a number of 2,221 deficiencies).
During 2021 and as world moves to the post COVID-19 era, Global PSC regimes proved to be able to support the industry (in respect of detecting substandard ships) despite the difficulties. Numbers show that the framework of PSC is still working and recovering from restrictions. Therefore, ship managers should be very cautious and supportive to ships and crew in order to prepare them for upcoming PSC inspections.
