The Paris MoU committee has approved the 2011 inspection results and adopted new performance lists
A Netherlands-based regional grouping of 27 maritime nations that seek to prevent substandard ships from calling at their ports has downgraded Indian-registered ships to its grey list from the white list, raising their risk profile.
The Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control is an official document by which the 27 participating maritime authorities have agreed to implement a harmonized system of port state control to eliminate the operation of substandard ships. The Paris MoU covers the waters of the European coastal states and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe. Port state control is a check on visiting foreign ships to verify their compliance with international rules on safety, pollution prevention and seafarers’ living and working conditions.
Annually, more than 24,000 on-board inspections of foreign ships take place in the Paris MoU ports, ensuring that these ships meet international safety, security and environmental standards, and that crew members have adequate living and working conditions.
The Paris MoU is the oldest of the nine regional port state control MoUs in the world and is considered to be the most prestigious.
The Paris MoU committee has approved the 2011 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flag states. The new list took effect on 1 July.
The white, grey and black lists of the Paris MoU present a full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered to carry high or very high risk. It is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a three-year rolling period for flags, with at least 30 inspections in the period.
On the white, grey and black lists for 2011, a total number of 80 flags are listed-43 on the white list, 20 on the grey list and 17 on the black list.
The white list represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which is facing international sanctions over its nuclear programme, is among the four nations that have been moved from the grey list to the white list of the Paris MoU.
Flags with an average performance are shown on the grey list.
India has dropped from the white list to the grey list, said Richard Schiferli, secretary general at Paris MoU on Port State Control, in a statement on its website.
“Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the white list. At the same time, flags at the lower end of the grey list should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the black list next year,” Schiferli said in the statement.
“The downgrade means that Indian ships are less sea-worthy or cargo-worthy and not maintained well,” said T.V. Shanbhag, a Mumbai-based independent shipping adviser and maritime arbitrator.
“It is difficult for us to comment at this stage unless we carry out an examination of the process or yardstick used by the Paris MoU that resulted in the downgrade,” said A. Banerjee, chief surveyor with the Indian government and additional director general (engineering) at the directorate general of shipping, India’s maritime regulator. “We will have to investigate what was the yardstick used to rewrite the list.”
Anil Devli, chief executive officer of the Indian National Shipowners’ Association, an industry lobby, said he would comment after checking the information.
“I have no idea on this,” S. Hajara, chairman and managing director of state-run Shipping Corp. of India Ltd, India’s biggest ocean carrier, said in a text message.
A flag’s ranking is taken into account by the Paris MoU when targeting ships for inspection, and ships flying flags listed on the grey list and black list are liable for being banned from the region after multiple detentions.
From 1 July, the performance lists will be used for calculating a ship’s risk profile, and flags on the grey list and black list are subject to more stringent banning measures that have been in force since 1 January 2011.
Source: Live Mint