The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is calling upon EU maritime administrations to ensure that they are ready to issue passenger ships with the required insurance certificates in order that ships can comply with the EU Passenger Liability Regulation (PLR).

If the necessary certificates are not issued as required, by 31 December, then cruise ships and passenger ferries, including non-EU vessels, may be unable to trade within EU waters.

ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe explained: “In close co-operation with the International Group of P&I Clubs, passenger ship operators have gone to great lengths to ensure that they can meet the new insurance requirements, including the need to obtain cover for terrorism and war risks.  It is now essential that EU Member States are ready to issue the required certificates and do this using a common approach.”

Mr Hinchliffe added: “It is especially important that certification arrangements are in place for ships registered with non-EU flags, as well as for European ones”.

The EU Passenger Liability Regulation (PLR) broadly mirrors the 2002 Protocol to the IMO Athens Convention, although the IMO instrument has still not yet entered into force worldwide.

“The issues are complex,” said Mr Hinchliffe, “but the thorny issue of terrorism cover has hampered implementation of the IMO Protocol since IMO Member States first rejected industry arguments that terrorism is an attack on society at large and that the costs should be borne by governments.  Instead IMO decided that the provision of such cover should be left to the market”.

With respect to the new EU regulation that comes into effect at the end of the month, the need to obtain cover for terrorism has presented shipowners and their insurers with a real challenge.  The International Group of P&I Clubs has decided to issue certificates of insurance for the non-war risks arising under the EU PLR, and alternative arrangements have been developed for the terrorism component, namely insurance in the non-mutual commercial market arranged by Marsh/Willis or Safeguard.

Given the complication of having to have separate terrorism cover, the International Group and ICS have been trying to persuade governments to develop a common position with regard to port state acceptance of insurance certificates.  This is of vital importance if the Regulation is to come into effect on 31 December without causing disruption to the cruise ship and ferry industries and, even more importantly, to their passengers.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents over 80% of the world merchant fleet, has issued a new position paper on Arctic shipping. As the Arctic becomes more accessible, ICS has set out some key principles with regard to the future governance of Arctic waters.

Offshore support vessel activity is already significant, while destination shipping is anticipated to grow as the extraction of energy and raw materials is developed. Use of the Northern Sea Route is also a reality for a small but increasing number of ships in the summer months.

ICS therefore stresses the importance of Arctic nations respecting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and relevant IMO Conventions and Codes such as SOLAS and MARPOL.

ICS Director of External Relations, Simon Bennett explained: “As the volume of Arctic shipping gradually increases, there is a growing awareness about the need for a high degree of care when ships navigate Arctic waters. However, the proper forum for addressing these concerns is the International Maritime Organization, which is currently developing a Polar Code that is expected to be mandatory. It is most important that Arctic nations avoid unilateral measures that might cut across IMO Conventions or the provisions of UNCLOS.”

ICS stresses that individual coastal states should not impose discriminatory treatment that might prejudice the rights of ships registered with non-Arctic nations under international maritime law, such as unilateral ship construction, design and equipment standards.

ICS also identifies some issues that require clarification as Arctic waters become more accessible. For example, ICS believes that the UNCLOS regime of ‘transit passage’ for straits used for international navigation takes precedence over the rights of coastal states to enact unilateral measures against international shipping.

“Until recently this issue seemed rather academic, as did the question of nations using straight baselines to determine their territorial sea. But as remote Arctic sea routes become accessible these issues are becoming more important.” said Mr Bennett.

Amongst the intended audience for the ICS paper are high level policy makers in environment and foreign ministries who may not be regularly engaged in shipping issues.

However, the paper also outlines ICS’s approach towards the development of the IMO Polar Code, which is expected to be finalised next year.

“The development of the Polar Code needs to be risk and performance-based,” said Mr Bennett. “For example, pending the future development of unified requirements for the construction and operation of ‘ice-class’ ships, the Code should not arbitrarily require conformity with any particular ‘ice-class’ standards to the exclusion of others that deliver comparable performance.”

The paper also sets out ICS’s position with respect to the development of infrastructure to support safety and environmental protection, the need for full market access and freedom of navigation, transparency with respect to national regulation and the need for reduced bureaucracy and the setting of appropriate fees for services.

“If frequent and reliable international shipping services are to be provided between Arctic ports and the rest of the world, or natural resources in the region are to be developed in a manner that reconciles the need for both environmental and economic sustainably, this will require the provision of maritime services that are competitive and cost efficient,” said Mr Bennett.

The ICS position paper is being distributed via national shipowners’ associations to governments and other stakeholders, but can be downloaded at www.ics-shipping.org.

Representatives of the leading worldwide Associations of Shipbuilders, Classification Societies and Shipowners met in Busan, Korea for their annual Tripartite meeting hosted by the Korean Register of Shipping and KOSHIPA, the national shipbuilders association.

The meeting was united in expressing its serious concern with the obstacles that all three parties face as the Ballast Water Management Convention moves closer to ratification, eight years after its text was adopted.  It was always going to be challenging to fit ballast water treatment equipment to all of the world’s 70,000 ships.

New technologies needed to be explored and developed to treat the volume of water required by ocean going ships as ballast. However the slow pace of ratification by IMO member States has negated the carefully staged implementation programme that was a feature of the original Convention.  Now that the fixed timeline for implementation has passed without entry into force it means that, as soon as the Ballast Water Management Convention does meet its ratification criteria, thousands of ships will need to be fitted in a very short time.

Whilst strenuous efforts were made by industry, this will put unattainable demands on ship repair facilities, engineering capabilities and on the relatively small number of manufacturers that have developed suitable treatment equipment.

The meeting also expressed serious concerns about Type-Approval requirements. Having now gained some experience with the current requirements, Tripartite participants expressed the clear opinion that many serious shortcomings now need urgent attention. If nothing is done to address this situation, a very large number of treatment equipments costing billions of dollars may be required to be installed on ships with the prior knowledge that these systems may not always work reliably to the demanded biological efficacy.

Not least of the problems is that the certified performance criteria of sophisticated new treatment equipment seems to fall short of testing requirements that may be applied by port state control authorities.  Much more work still needs to be done by governments to rectify the current situation.

“We note that IMO decided not to reopen the G8 guidelines but asked BLG 17 to look into certification guidance on the G8 guideline with the aim of providing greater clarity on the operating conditions in which BWTS are expected to operate.  Factors to be taken into account include seawater salinity, temperature and sediment load, as well as operation at flow rates significantly lower that the rated treatment flow rate.

IMO also asked member States to submit case studies with quantitative evidence of BWTS failures to improve understanding of the areas of weakness within the approval process.

While this is a step in the right direction, the BWM Convention was designed to assure the ability to meet the required standard by a treatment system installed on an operating vessel. Having requirements that ensure the equipment is fit for purpose is an important element in achieving successful implementation.” said IACS Chairman, Tom Boardley.

The Tripartite meeting agreed that the industry is faced with a challenge both in respect to the timeline and to the lack of maturity of individual treatment systems.  One mitigating factor would be to define existing ships as those having been constructed prior to entry into force of the Convention, and that retrofitting of Type Approved ballast water management systems should not be required until the next full 5 year survey, rather than the next intermediate survey.

Speaking at the end of the Tripartite meeting ICS Chairman, Masamichi Morooka said:

“It is good that many governments now seem to understand the shipowners’ arguments that it will be very difficult indeed to retrofit tens of thousands of ships within the timeline of two or three years of entry into force, as the Convention text currently requires.  IMO has agreed to develop an IMO Assembly Resolution, for adoption in 2013, to smooth the implementation.”

“It is vital that we ease the log jam by spreading implementation over five years rather than two or three.” said Dave Iwamoto, Chairman of the Committee for Expertise of Shipbuilding

Specifics.

The meeting agreed jointly to engage further with governments in order to explain the scale of the challenge faced by the shipbuilding and repair community in order to cope with the vast number of ships that will be required to install the new treatment systems.

The Tripartite went on to discuss the enforcement and compliance issues that will arise as systems are installed and the Convention comes into force. A major challenge is that any compliance action will not be taken against the treatment system manufacturer or test facility, but rather against shipowners who in good faith may have installed a system Type-Approved by a government. Given the current knowledge about apparent shortcomings in the Testing and Approval requirements when compared with the real life operating environment, the G8 Guidelines must be updated.  A Type-Approved system, costing between one and five million dollars per ship, should reasonably be expected to robustly operate effectively under all of the normal operating conditions encountered by that ship.

“We are all in full support of the IMO and the intentions behind the Ballast Water Convention. However, given where we are today, we need to re-address both the timeline and the Approval requirements defined in the G8 guidelines in order to ensure that we achieve the real intentions of the Convention without unnecessary costs and unintended compliance issues”

“We need to urgently engage with both the IMO and with individual Governments in order to address these issues” said ICS Chairman Mr Morooka.

—ends—

This Press Release is issued jointly by:

ICS;  IACS; BIMCO; Intercargo;  Intertanko; OCIMF; and CESS (Committee for Expertise of Shipbuilding Specifics)

The International Shipping Federation (ISF), which represents maritime employers globally, says that the low level of implementation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 185, concerning the facilitation of shore leave and crew transits, is a continuing source of disappointment.

Speaking in Manila this week, at a seminar organised by the International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations (IFSMA), ISF Director of Employment Affairs, Natalie Shaw, explained that the ILO Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (ILO 185) – which ISF helped to negotiate on behalf of employers in 2003 – was adopted as part of a package of measures following the terrorist attacks in 2001.

“The wide ratification of the Convention would have materially assisted the welfare of seafarers as well as addressing the security concerns of port states.” said Mrs Shaw. She explained that under the terms of the Convention, and as a part of a quid pro quo for requiring seafarers to carry new ILO identity documents, port states were meant to find ways of making access to shore leave easier.

For example, while ILO 185 discourages port states from requiring seafarers to have to obtain visas, reflecting the special nature of their employment, the Convention does not explicitly prohibit them from doing so, provided that the port state concerned takes equivalent measures.  This might include allowing seafarers to obtain visas on arrival, rather than requiring them to obtain visas from overseas consulates.

However, according to ISF, insistence by port states that seafarers must obtain visas in advance of arrival in port is still a major problem in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

“If governments insist on requiring seafarers to obtain visas, which is contrary to the spirit of relevant ILO Conventions and the IMO FAL Convention, it should be made possible for seafarers to obtain visas on arrival.” suggested Mrs Shaw.

One of the problems connected to the low level of implementation by governments of ILO Convention 185 is that the technical specifications for the required seafarers’ identity documents are different to those used in passports or by the aviation industry.

“The equipment needs to be interoperable, and understandably countries are reluctant to pay the costs required to purchase equipment solely for the use of seafarers.” said Ms Shaw.  “It would be much more viable to align the standards with those that exist elsewhere.  24 countries have now ratified Convention 185 but few are able to issue the new ILO ID cards and there are few machines available internationally that can read them.”

However, ISF remains committed to encouraging the widespread ratification of ILO 185, and finding a way forward at ILO so that the technical specifications for the ID cards might be modified.

The ILO Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention (Revised) (ILO 185) exists separately to the ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, which consolidates most other ILO maritime standards in a single instrument and which will enter into force worldwide in August 2013.

IMO rules should be subject to impact and sustainability assessment says ICS

There are some clearly identifiable steps which need to be taken to enhance shipping’s already very impressive record of maritime safety, according to International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe.

Speaking at the IMO Alternative World Maritime Day Event in Bahrain this week, Mr Hinchliffe stressed the need for mandatory provisions to provide a place of refuge for ships in need of assistance, plus timely and obligatory reporting of casualty investigations by Flag States to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This would replicate the handling of aviation incidents.

Environmental protection and crew and passenger safety can be addressed better by raising the current level of guidance on providing a place of refuge to a new level of obligation, he said.

Pointing out that accidents may happen even under the most stringent regulatory regimes, Mr Hinchliffe said the industry’s ability to learn from such incidents was hampered when accident investigations were not conducted in a timely fashion or the outcomes were not reported to the IMO.

“The track record of rapidly decreasing environmental impact by the shipping industry is the most powerful measure of the steady increase in the safe design, construction and operation of ships,” he told those attending the IMO event.

Sustainability, as highlighted by the recent United Nations Rio+20 Summit on sustainable development, is also a key issue for shipping he explained, stressing that safety, environmental protection and the global quest for reduced dependence on fossil fuel are “inextricably linked”.

Careful adjustment in key areas will ensure that shipping remains a top performer with respect to the environmental pillar of sustainability for the foreseeable future, said Mr Hinchliffe.  But he also championed the need for a formal “impact and sustainability assessment” that will allow IMO to take full account of economic sustainability when drafting new maritime legislation. “The subject of impact assessment has been recognised at IMO but we have yet to see this being transformed into reality,” he said, adding that this issue also puts the spotlight on the argument against regional and local legislation which cannot possibly take into account its impact on international trade.

“Without shipping the world’s social and economic sustainability is in real jeopardy,” warned Mr Hinchliffe “Ninety percent of world trade is carried at an environmental cost of three percent of the world’s CO2 inventory and it doesn’t take a big conceptual leap to see that, with legislation already in place or awaiting ratification, the environmental influences of shipping are managed and limited already.”

ICS is concerned about proposals on environmental salvage and the York Antwerp Rules

Following a meeting of its Insurance Committee today, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents over 80% of the world merchant fleet, has reiterated its firm opposition to proposals from the International Salvage Union (ISU) for a new separate award for ‘environmental salvage’, in cases where salvors have carried out operations in respect of a ship or cargo which has presented a threat of damage to the environment.

ICS is also very concerned about controversial proposals with respect to the future for the York Antwerp Rules on General Average.

Both topics will be considered by the Comité Maritime International (CMI), the international association for maritime lawyers, which is holding its conference in Beijing next week, at which ICS will be represented.

“ICS remains deeply sceptical about the proposal for a separate environmental salvage award, especially as salvage services are already generously rewarded under the present system.” said the ICS Insurance Committee Chairman, Matheos Los.

In co-operation with the International Group of P&I Clubs, ICS leads shipowner representation on salvage issues, particularly in relation to the smooth operation of the Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF).

ISU maintains that its proposal will allow for a “merit” based award for salvors’ services to avoid or minimise damage to the environment which, they say, the present system with SCOPIC, a tariff based-system of financial reward, does not provide.

However, ICS contends that the IMO Salvage Convention, and indeed Lloyd’s Open Form which is based on the Convention, already provides for a system that allows for recognition of environmental benefit and which, with SCOPIC, provides for a generous financial reward to salvors.

ISU wishes to have a standalone environmental award in addition to the traditional property award.  This would apparently be based on an assessment of the theoretical benefits of savings made to the environment.

However, the concern of ICS is that inevitably such an award would require the introduction of expert evidence with complicated tools, as has been seen in US Natural Resource Damage Assessment cases.  Such an assessment would not only prove complicated and costly but would ultimately prolong the awards process.

“Such a complicated and drawn out process would be in no one’s interest, not least the salvors, who in any event have previously expressed great satisfaction with the current SCOPIC regime,” said Mr Los.

A working group established by the Lloyd’s Salvage Group in which ICS participates, reached a stalemate following the ISU’s inability to demonstrate that its proposal would improve salvage response, or indeed deliver cost savings to those paying for salvage services.  Somewhat surprisingly however, in view of the generally unenthusiastic response from interested parties in the industry, the ISU succeeded in persuading the CMI to give consideration to its proposals for a revision of the IMO Salvage Convention and to amend the Lloyd’s Open Form.

Mr Los remarked: “Given this lack of consensus – or indeed consensus amongst national maritime law associations, many of whom appear to share ICS’s and insurers’ doubts – ICS very much hopes that CMI will take proper account of shipowners’ views at its important meeting in Beijing.”

At the CMI Conference, ICS will also be resisting changes proposed to the York Antwerp Rules governing General Average, following discussions initiated within CMI.

As with the CMI discussion about possible amendment of the Salvage Convention, there are some serious concerns about the need for a revision at all, particularly in the present economic situation when shipowners are facing strong pressures.

“ICS is particularly concerned that any revision could destroy the uniform global regime that has developed and is presently provided very effectively by the 1994 York Antwerp Rules,” said Mr Los.

ICS notes that the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) also believes that the proposals require further detailed consideration, not least to ensure shipowners’ agreement, and that the discussion should therefore be put back until 2016.