Port state control in the Asia-Pacific region: Issues and challenges

Determination of maritime safety performance of flag states based on the Port State Control inspections using TOPSIS

Port State Control inspections play a paramount role in the enhancement of maritime safety. Port State Control regimes were established to ensure sustainability of Port State Control inspections. There are a total of 10 Port State Control regimes. Although all of these Port State Control regimes inspect foreign flag ships calling on their ports in compliance with international maritime safety and pollution regulations, still different implementations exist between these Port State Control regimes. According to the detentions, 73% of flag states have different performances in Port State Control regimes. However, the uniformity in inspections and detentions is quite important in the improvement of the effectiveness of Port State Control inspections in the world. This study aims at assessing the similarities between the Port State Control regimes on the basis of the performance of flag states as regards their Port State Control inspections. The similarities of the Port State Control regimes are analyzed employing the hierarchical clustering method using the detention and deficiency rates similarity matrices, the risk levels similarity matrices of flag states, and the combined similarity matrix. Accordingly, similarities between Port State Control regimes are discussed relative to each other and the Paris memorandum of understanding.

This study aims to describe the understanding of the flag-state administration, recognized organizations, and seafarers onboard regarding the implementation of the port State control for dealing with the impacts and challenges resulting from the results of inspections by port State control. The research relies on qualitative analysis. The primary data was obtained from personal experience and informal discussions with Port State Control Officers (PSCO) of Indonesia and related parties to this research. The secondary data was gathered from National regulations relating to the ratification of IMO conventions, the annual port State control reports in the Asia-Pacific region, publications of organization, sources of documentation, journal references, and various works and literature supporting this research's objectives. The ultimate responsibility of keeping the ship in compliance with international standards lies with the shipowner, flag States, and other relevant industry players. The "Black, Grey, and White List" is the driving force for the shipowners and flag State to encourage them to improve their performance. The goal of every flag State should be to appear high up on the list as possible. For example, the ship flags with a consistently low detention record by port State control will be on the White list. The flag state on the White list means meeting its obligation to register safe and seaworthy ships. It also puts the client at minimal risk of operational difficulties. It makes registering vessels with such flag status of interest to shipping associations to recommend that shipping companies or shipowners choose the appropriate flag.

Port State control (PSC) is an important method which the Port State adopts to manage ship safety and marine pollution in its territory. During the process of promoting the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), subject to economic development and shipping, there is a lack of unified standards and requirements among different states along MSR, which causes many problems. Firstly, the level of economic development among countries around MSR is different leading to some countries cannot afford to develop their PSC. There is a lack of cooperation among these countries. Secondly, the PSC levels of most countries along MSR are weak. Moreover, the standards of PSC and the capacity of the officers of the Port State are different. Lastly, there is a deviation in the direction of the same State’s PSC. They are even not clear on the major functions of PSC, so they may be confused by the pre-supervision and the latter examination. Therefore, taking advantage of the experience from the successful PSC organizations, the states may learn from the examples of the new mechanism under Paris MOU and Tokyo MOU, then formulate the cooperative mechanism fitting better to them. In order to fulfill this goal, the authors shall try to unify the standards of PSC, quantify the PSC content index, and rectify the direction of PSC among different states along MSR. In the meantime, the states shall strengthen information exchanges and further develop extensive cooperation, and improve the modes of cooperation about shipyard and ship classification society among countries. Then it will create a favorable environment for the development of shipping and the MSR construction.

This article is based on 183 819 port state control inspections from various port state control regimes for the time frame 1999 to 2004. Using binary logistic regression, we establish the differences of port state control inspections across several regimes, even though theory predicts there should be no significant differences in treatments of vessels. The results indicate that the differences towards the probability of detention are merely reflected by the differences in port states and the treatment of deficiencies and not necessarily by age, size, flag, class or owner as perceived by the industry and regulators. The analysis further shows that some differences can be found across ship types and regimes and that there appears to be room for further harmonization in the area of port state control.

The topic of harmonizing port state control (PSC) inspections has been on the agenda of the flag state sub‐committee meeting at the International Maritime Organization in recent years. This article is based on a unique combined dataset of 183 819 PSC inspections and uses correspondence analysis to visualize differences in treatment of vessels across several PSC regimes, representing more than 50 individual port states in order to provide better insight into the areas of possible harmonization. The results show that treatment of vessels across the regimes varies, indicating room for harmonization in all inspection areas. We recommend accelerating the harmonization process by putting more emphasis on the harmonization of inspection procedures, combined training of PSC officers and the use of combined datasets across regimes, in particular in the concept of the development of the Global Integrated Ship Information System of the International Maritime Organization.

The Turkish Straits are well known for theirs intensive maritime traffic. The average annual number of transit ships passing through this waterway is approximately 50000 and more than 100 flag states pass through it. Moreover, this waterway presents a navigational challenge owing to its inherent geographic and oceanographic characteristics. Also, sub-standard ships navigating in this region lead to an increased risk levels and pose a threat to the marine environment. Over the years, serious maritime accidents occurring in the straits region had resulted in losses of life and constituted environmental disasters. The high risk arising from maritime shipping in these regions had always endangered public health in the vicinity of the Turkish Straits. In this study, maritime safety in the Turkish Straits region had been assessed based on the performance in the Port State Control inspections of flag states passing through this region. For the assessment of the performance of passing flag states, detention and deficiency indices of these flag states were generated for the MOUs. According to these values, the risk level of these flag states had been determined by the weighted risk point methods. Hereby, in addition to the determination of the risk level of flag states, the relationships between the inspections of MOUs had been also discussed on the basis of both the detention and the deficiency rates of flag states.

Econometric analysis to differentiate effects of various ship safety inspections

Differences in deficiency types causing ship detentions at the Black Sea Region during the Covid-19 pandemic and pre-pandemic

IntroductionPort State Control (PSC) is a vital element of sustainable maritime transportation. Inspections of PSC regimes have been ensuring the continuity of the global supply chain as they enforce shipping to implement the maritime regulations to be safe, secure, and environmentally friendly.ObjectiveSince the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the number of onboard ship inspections has decreased inherently for protecting PSC officersand seafarers, while PSC regimes have developed a policy to focus on a high-risk ship based on historical inspection records. In this context, planning for a “new normal” in maritime transportation, it is essential to realize the change in ship inspection numbers and the trend of deficiency - detention factors for the maritime sector to provide current standards. This study aims to present the difference in ship inspection trends between 2017-2020 by focusing on COVID-19 pandemic outbreak data.MethodsComparative analysis with Paris MOU ship inspection & detention figures and entropy-based Grey Relevance Analysis has been used as a methodology to reveal the change in inspection trends after COVID-19.ResultsAfter the pandemic outbreak caused by COVID-19, the number of ship inspections under Paris MOU fell dramatically, however, inspection and detention rate remained the same, also entropy-based Grey Relevance Analysis indicates that detention remarks have also changed compared to last year deficiencies. Detention caused by nautical publication and cleanliness in the engine room has an increasing trend on detentions.ConclusionInspection statistics indicate consistent figures even during the pandemic outbreak, which indicates the current sample group for Paris MOU inspection is healthy. At the same time, entropy-based Grey Relevance Analysis presents a broader insight that the inspection trend on detention deficiencies has varied. Familiarization with the changing trends in inspections will cause fewer detentions of the ships.

This paper compares the policies and approaches of a number of countries including Canada, the US, Australia and the UK to determine what safeguards are needed to ensure that the public interest is served from the point of view of Canadian policy makers. Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MOU, 1982), Canada has gradually implemented greater PSC control activities with more stringent rules for ships entering her waters. In late 1993, Transport Canada released a discussion paper proposing to delegate ship inspections for Canadian flag vessels to approved classification societies in order to use in-house resources to meet its PSC obligations for foreign flag shipping. Consolidation of ship inspection activity for economic benefit of owners requires an audit/monitoring function by government on classification societies. Another monitoring function improves the system through insurance industry monitoring of classification societies. For Canada, the question is not commitment to PSC principles but rather how to allocate the necessary but limited resources to meet both flag state and port state obligations.

The International Maritime Organization along with couple European countries (Paris MoU) has introduced in 1982 the port state control (PSC) inspections of vessels in national ports to evaluate their compliance with safety and security regulations. This study discusses how the PSC data share common characteristics with Big Data fundamental theories, and by interpreting them as Big Data, we could enjoy their governance and transparency as a Big Data challenge to gain value from their use. Thus, from the scope of Big Data, PSC should exhibit volume, velocity, variety, value, and complexity to support in the best possible way both officers ashore and on board to maintain the vessel in the best possible conditions for sailing. For the above purpose, this paper employs Big Data theories broadly used within the academic and business environment on datasets characteristics and how to access the value from Big Data and Analytics. The research concludes that PSC data provide valid information to the shipping industry. However, the lack of PSC data ability to present the complete picture of PSC regimes and ports challenges the maritime community’s attempts for a safer and more sustainable industry.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Port State Control (PSC) regime in relation to ensuring the safety and security of international shipping against threats of piracy and maritime terrorism in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Responsibility for ensuring compliance with required international standards of safety and security rests primarily with the flag states of vessels, but in practice, effective compliance is verified mainly through the system of Port State Control (PSC). However, PSC appears ineffective in the IOR, including around the Horn of Africa, where acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships are prevalent. Significant numbers of sub-standard ships operate in this region. These vessels are more likely to be successfully attacked or involved in illegal activity than quality ships. This situation could be symptomatic of wider problems in international shipping that throw doubt on the effectiveness of current regional regimes for ship safety, security and marine environmental protection, including measures to prevent maritime terrorism and illicit trafficking in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and related materials.

The article discusses two of the important Memorandum of understanding that have an impact on the development of Bulgarian maritime transport, such as The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control - Paris MoU and The Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Black Sea Region - BS MoU. Their essence is briefly examined and based on data on the inspections carried out, it is found that Bulgaria does not have a sufficient number of vessels, which is the basis for its exclusion from the lists of the Paris Memorandum. It is noted that one of the largest Bulgarian shipowners registers its vessels under the flag of Malta, which directs the focus of attention to the conditions for registering ships in that country. The author believes that Bulgaria can study these conditions and implement a similar registration regime in the country.

In this paper time series univariate forecast methods and analysis of time series is used in an innovative way, with the intention of assisting the flag state administrators to map and predefine their shipping quality policy. In general, given the number of ships detained by Port State Control (PSC) and corresponding inspections of the flag fleet for the same period of time, one is able to forecast the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) excess factor of any flag state for a selected time window. Thus, depending on the goals of each flag state administration, one can judge their feasibility (e.g. remain in the Paris MOU White List or achieve an excess factor of —1 etc) and determine whether to enhance the safety measures or not. The method is first developed and discussed on an abstract basis to set the theoretical background, a combination of time series analysis and practical engineering philosophy. Then the study focuses upon the Cyprus Flag figures in Paris MOU ports, only to demonstrate its effectiveness but can in any case be applied upon any given flag. The application of the method suggested, combined with expert judgment, could result in a significant improvement of the flag quality.