ICS: Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table 2024/2025

Using a wide range of objective performance indicators, the ICS Table provides an analysis of the extent to which flag State administrations adhere to their responsibilities to follow global standards and regulations governing safety, environmental protection and the employment conditions of seafarers.

A number of Flag States have shown positive indicators for all of the criteria used in the Table. These include:

• Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Liberia (the largest), Malta, Marshall Islands and Singapore – where more than 53% of the world fleet is registered (according to UN Trade and Development) – continue to show all-green performance indicators on the latest ICS table.
• Bahamas, China PRC and Panama, also in the top ten by tonnage, also demonstrate very good performance and a strict commitment to global maritime regulation.

Furthermore, four Flag States have been included in the Table this year for the first time, reflecting the recent increase of shipping tonnage registered to smaller administrations. The new additions, Cambodia, Eswatini, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau are reportedly used by some shipping companies seeking to bypass US/EU/G7 sanctions, leading to concerns as to whether international maritime standards are being properly enforced on board ships flying the flags of these States.

Guy Platten, Secretary General, ICS pointed out that Eswatini’s emergence as a flag State presents a distinct concern as it is not a member of the UN IMO and is therefore not a signatory of its international maritime Conventions. ICS strongly encourages Eswatini and other new flag States to prioritise IMO membership and the ratification and implementation of IMO Conventions to demonstrate their commitment to global maritime governance and the responsible operation of those ships registered with their fleets.

For more than 50 years, shipping has been a global industry operating under global rules, and it is vital that flag States adhere to their obligations to enforce the highest global safety standards. I hope that this year’s Table helps shipping companies to carefully consider the performance of flag administrations when making decisions about the flags which they choose for their ships to fly.

…said Guy Platten.

Methodology 

Port State Control

A simple means of assessing the effective enforcement of international rules is to examine the collective PSC record of ships flying a particular flag. The three principal PSC authorities are the countries of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the Tokyo MOU and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). All three authorities target particular flags on the basis of deficiencies and detentions recorded for ships flying that flag. The Table identifies flag states that feature on the Paris and Tokyo MOUs’ white lists and that have fully qualified for the USCG’s Qualship 21 program, and those which do not appear on their respective black lists/target lists. Ships whose flag states do not appear on PSC white lists tend to be subject to a greater likelihood of inspections.

The Table now also identifies those flags whose ships suffered no detentions within a particular PSC region over the previous three years, but did not meet the relevant minimum requirement of inspections or arrivals to be included in the MOU white lists/Qualship 21 program. In order to be identified in this way with respect to the Paris and Tokyo MOU white lists, a flag must have undergone at least one inspection in the previous three years. With respect to the Qualship 21 program, a flag must have made at least three distinct arrivals in each of the previous three years. As regards the USCG Target List, flags which are listed as ‘Medium Risk’ on the list are identified with a neutral indicator. This is in alignment with the way in which the three PSC authorities present this information. 

Use of Recognized Organizations in compliance with the IMO RO Code

The IMO Code for Recognized Organizations (RO Code) requires flag states to establish controls over ROs conducting survey work on their behalf, and to determine if these bodies have adequate resources for the tasks assigned. The RO Code also requires flag states to submit data to IMO on the ROs authorised to act on their behalf.

The Annual Reports released by the Paris and Tokyo MOUs on PSC contain ‘Performance Lists of Recognized Organizations’, which rank each RO into high-, medium-, low- and very low-performing. Using a combined list of high-performing ROs from the Paris and Tokyo MOU lists, the table positively identifies flag states which employ as many or more high-performing ROs, as they do non-high-performing ROs, and which have submitted their RO related data to the IMO in line with the RO Code.

Age of fleet

A high concentration of older tonnage under a particular flag does not necessarily mean that this tonnage is in any way substandard. However, a flag with a concentration of younger ships may be more likely to attract quality tonnage than a flag state with a high concentration of older vessels. Calculations of ‘Average age’ are conducted through the UNCTAD Stat Database, which is publicly available.

The average age is determined based on analysis of aggregated data of ships registered under a particular flag state. As a positive indicator, the Table therefore shows the 90% of flags (among those listed) that have the lowest average fleet age (the bottom 10% of those listed having the highest average age). Nevertheless, it is strongly emphasised by ICS that the age of an individual ship is not an indicator of quality, and that the condition of an individual ship is ultimately determined by how it is maintained.