Tag: Flag States

ClassNK earns authorization from German Flag

Says Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele South Africa's failure to have any ships flying the country's flag was costing the country some R37-billion a year, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said.He said in Durban that of the 200-million tons of freight that left South African ports in 2009, not a single ton was carried by a ship bearing the South African flag."Sadly today, our country cannot claim to have prioritised this sector," he said."All of the 200-million tons of our trade are carried by foreign-flagged ships, costing the South African economy in excess of R37-billion per year," said Ndebele.Maritime law dictates that ships have to be registered with a country and fly that country's flag.However, many ship owners fly a flag of convenience. A flag of convenience ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership.Cheap registration fees, low or no taxes and freedom to employ cheap labour are, according to the International Transport Workers Federation, the motivating factors behind a ship owner's decision to fly flags of convenience.Countries that have cheap registration fees are Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands.Ndebele said that 80% of the country's trade was by sea and therefore it was ...

June 2011 Liberian Registry has published Flagship issue No.33 June 2011.To view it please click hereSource: LISCR

The FLAGSHIP initiative led by various businesses from all over Europe FLAGSHIP, the part EU-funded maritime transport project, concluded on 31st May. During its tenure, the project facilitated the research and development of 10 new maritime solutions from multiple European companies.The FLAGSHIP initiative was divided into sub-projects led by various businesses from all over Europe .For example, FLAGSHIP-TCI led by Marintek in Norway was concerned with creating key performance indicators and technical condition indices to enable fleet managers to compare the performance of their vessels with each other and with benchmarks.This led to the development of a commercial product by DNV, called Top Monitoring, which monitors main engines.Commercial products monitoring auxiliary engines are expected to be launched later this year from two separate FLAGSHIP partners - Danaos and Wartsila.In the UK, BMT led a sub-project - FLAGSHIP-HCA - which addressed surveys and drydock repair processes. This resulted in the German partner, Germanischer Lloyd (GL), introducing a new commercial tool called Hull Manager.GL also led a project called FLAGSHIP-EEM, which focused on energy savings during sailing. This has resulted in a patent being secured to cover a new process of measuring and giving a direct insight in power consumption during operations. ...

New products and systems to improve the safety, environmental friendliness and competitiveness The Flagship European maritime transport project, part-financed through the EU, has now concluded. The project has facilitated R&D for some 10 new products from a number of European companies.All the new products and systems are said to improve the safety, environmental friendliness and competitiveness of European maritime transport - precisely the objective of Flagship.The project was divided into sub projects led by various businesses from around Europe. Flagship-TCI led by Marintek in Norway was concerned with creating Key Performance Indicators and Technical Condition Indices to enable fleet managers to compare performance of vessels. This has led to the development of a commercial product by DNV, called Top Monitoring, which monitors main engines. Commercial products monitoring auxiliary engines are expected to be launched later this year from Flagship partners Danaos and Wärtsilä.In the UK BMT led a sub project called Flagship-HCA which addressed the process of surveys and dry-dock repairs. This resulted in Germanischer Lloyd introducing a new commercial tool called Hull Manager. GL also led a project called Flagship-EEM which focused on energy savings during sailing which has resulted in a patent being secured to cover a new ...