AMSA issued its PSC inspection report for 2017, indicating a significant fall in the detention rate in Australian ports to 5.3%. This result is the lowest since 2006 – with a detention rate of 4.5%. This result is also reflected in the average number of deficiencies per inspection remaining at a low of 2.3%. This outcome was last recorded in 2004.
The decrease in the detention rate and low number of deficiencies per inspection emphasises the benefit in maintaining a consistent, firm, but fair, PSC inspection regime. Ships and operators who consistently perform poorly can be banned from entering or using Australian ports under section 246 of the Navigation Act1 .
In 2017 AMSA banned three ships for periods of 3–12 months. Two of the bans involved significant breaches of the MLC. The PSC processes used for the MLC are well established as this convention has been in effect since 13 August 2013.
It appears that the general understanding of what is expected with respect to MLC compliance has improved. This has resulted in a reduction in the total number of MLC deficiencies and deficiencies per inspection from 2014 to 2017.
Inspection highlights
- During the calendar year there were:
– 28,502 ship arrivals by 5873 foreign-flagged ships
– 3128 PSC inspections
– 165 ship detentions - Bulk carriers accounted for 50.3% of ship arrivals and 55.4% of PSC inspections
- PSC inspections were carried out in 54 Australian ports
- The average gross tonnage per visit was 51,612 GT compared to 50,505 GT in 2016
- The average age of vessels in 2017 was nine years, compared to nine in 2016 and 10 in 2015
- AMSA surveyors conducted 7230 inspections of all types in 2017 compared to 8576 in 2016
- This decrease was achieved through better targeting of ships to focus on higher risk vessels
Key outcome
- The number of initial inspections continued to decrease in 2017.
- In 2017, the number of foreign-flagged arrivals increased by 985 (3.6%) to 28,502 arrivals by 5873 individual ships. This reflected a marked increase in the growth in foreign-flagged arrivals compared to the low growth in 2016 (0.6%) and 2015 (1.5%).
- The number of PSC inspections conducted during 2017 decreased by 547 (14.9%) to 3128 inspections.
- Ships performed better in 2017. There was a 20.8% decrease in the number of deficiencies―from 8942 deficiencies in 2016 to 7084 deficiencies in 2017.
- There was also a 37.8% decrease in the number of detainable deficiencies from 353 detainable deficiencies in 2016 to 219 detainable deficiencies in 2017.
- The number of detained vessels was 165—81 fewer (-32.7%) than the 246 detentions recorded in 2016. This is the lowest number of detentions since 2007.
- There was also a slight decrease in the average number of deficiencies per inspection from 2.4 in 2016 to 2.3 in 2017, with the detention rate decreasing from 6.7% in 2016 to 5.3% in 2017. This is the lowest detention rate in 12 years.
- The deficiencies per inspection and detention rate are both at record lows over the last decade.
- The overall picture indicates that AMSA’s PSC regime exerts a positive influence on the quality of ships arriving in Australia.
Further information may be found in the following report:
