The Panama Ship Registry: 1917–2017

Abstract

The Panama Ship Registry has its origins in the year 1917. Nowadays, Panama has the largest vessel registry in the world. The second placed registry in the world ranking is Liberia, which does not have even half the number of Panamanian ships. In this Centennial, the aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the Panamanian Registry, the structure of the Panamanian-flagged fleet and the level of compliance with international standards in relation to maritime safety and working conditions. To undertake the analysis, two different qualitative and quantitative approaches are compared and integrated for the evaluation of the Panama Ship Registry: the degree of ratification and enforcement of the Conventions and Recommendations of the International Maritime Organization and International Labour Organization, and the results of Panamanian flagged vessels in inspections carried out within the major Port State Control Memoranda of Understanding. This paper fills a research gap by discussing an approach to the concept of flag of convenience and flag State, Panama is more an international registry, whose role is becoming less important from the points of view of safety or working conditions. The fleet performance evolution has been very positive as evidenced by the data presented in this article regarding Port State Control.