The Round Table of international shipping associations (BIMCO,
International Chamber of Shipping/International Shipping
Federation, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO) has published its
latest ‘Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table’.
The Table, which accompanies the well established ‘Shipping
Industry Guidelines on Flag State Performance’, summarizes
factual information derived from the public domain. The
intention is to provide a general understanding of a flag’s
performance and to encourage ship operators to reflect on a
flag’s quality before using it.
The results of the 2010 study demonstrate that the vast
majority of the world fleet is registered with flag states which
take their responsibilities very seriously. Many flags have ratified
most of the key International Maritime Organization (IMO)
Conventions, adequate enforcement of which is shown by their
Port State Control records. There is, of course, always room for
improvement and most flags continue to receive a small number
of potential negative performance indicators, as denoted by ‘black
blobs’ on the Table. However, many flags have improved their
performance in previous years, some dramatically, and notably six
flags had no potential negative performance indicators at all in
2010.
Since the Table was first compiled in 2003, there has been a
noticeable decline in the number of flag states that appear on the
black lists of regional Port State Control authorities.
Unfortunately, there are still a number of poorly performing
flags and for 2010 the list of flags which the Round Table believes
shipowners should think very carefully about before using
includes: Albania, Bolivia, Cambodia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Côte
d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Honduras,
Lebanon, St Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sierra
Leone.
The Table and accompanying guidelines are intended to
complement the Voluntary IMO Member State Audit Scheme, by
which maritime administrations are subject to external audit
under the auspices of IMO with regard to their implementation
of IMO Conventions relevant to the safety of life at sea and
protection of the marine environment. The shipping industry
associations have welcomed the decision taken by the IMO
Council to make this scheme mandatory in future.