Paris MoU reveals 8 percent rise in life-saving equipment defects

Citation

(2003), "Paris MoU reveals 8 percent rise in life-saving equipment defects", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 12 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2003.07312aab.003

Paris MoU reveals 8 percent rise in life-saving equipment defects

Paris MoU reveals 8 percent rise in life-saving equipment defects

More than half the deficiencies detected by port state control inspectors in the Paris Memorandum region last year affected crucial safety areas such as lifeboats and fire-fighting equipment, according to the memorandum's annual report.

About 53 percent of the 68,756 deficiencies recorded were linked to "life saving appliances, fire-fighting equipment, safety in general and navigation", an increase of8 percent since 1999.

The report concluded that further efforts to enhance and harmonise port state control measures were needed to reduce substantially the numbers of substandard ships visiting the region.

Last year 18,681 inspections were carried out by Paris Memorandum inspectors on 11,658 foreign-going ships registered in 107 different flag states.

Officials detained 1,699 ships for deficiencies "clearly hazardous to safety, health or the environment", just over 9 percent of the total number of inspections but closer to 15 percent of all vessels inspected. Bulk carriers and general cargo vessels accounted for more than 80 percent of all detentions.

In a worrying development, however, last year's statistics showed a rise in the number of passenger ship detentions, with 54 percent of the 680 inspections carried out on those ships recording deficiencies and 51 vessels ending up detained.

Just weeks after issuing a tough statement accusing some flag states and class societies of using double standards, the Paris Memorandum's latest report offered a little more detail as to the problems encountered at the sharp end of shipping.

The figures show some appalling trends at the bottom end of the market. Of the 1,699 detentions last year, 22 percent (380) were considered class-related.

The worst offender was the International Register of Shipping, which classed ships involved in 44 percent of the class-related detentions.

Among flag states, Sao Tome and Principe topped the shame list with 46 percent of its vessels detained following inspections by Paris Memorandum officials. Albania, another repeat offender, followed close behind.

The annual report also reveals some interesting figures about the countries signed up to the memorandum. While the overall inspection rate by Paris Memorandum member states was 27.3 percent, some countries failed to meet their 25 percent target.

Notable among these was France, which inspected just 9.6 percent of the vessels calling at its ports.

The Netherlands, home to the memorandum's secretariat, was also a few percentage points short of the target.

(Brian Reyes in Gibraltar, Lloyd's Casualty Week, Vol. 329 No. 4, 19 July 2002).