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Intercargo calls for consistency in port state checks

David Osler - Tuesday 4 November 2008

INTERCARGO has hit out at discrepancies between the different port state control regimes in different countries, pointing to the wide range in the average number of deficiencies discovered when one jurisdiction is compared to another. 

The dry bulk sector trade association insists that the object of the exercise is simply to impress upon the authorities the need for greater consistency, rather than directly to criticise any individual nation. 

But the preliminary findings indicate that many more deficiencies are recorded by port state control inspectors in China than by their counterparts in the US Coast Guard. 

According to new secretary-general Rob Lomas, Intercargo has been studying the port state control statistics from 574 ports around the world, in both the Paris and Tokyo memorandum areas and the US as well as elsewhere. 

The results will be made public in the organisation’s detailed annual statistical and benchmarking report, when the 2008 edition is published shortly. 

Mr Lomas stressed that Intercargo had no problems with the idea of port state control and was “immensely happy” with the ideal. However, the research shows extreme variances in the treatment bulk carriers can expect from port to port, said. 

“For example, China is one of these place where you find that bulk carriers have an exceedingly large amount of deficiencies. It’s not the case if you go to the United States,” Mr Lomas said. 

“We’re not saying there’s a problem there, in terms of whether China is good or the US is bad or vice versa. What we are arguing for is consistency. 

“So if a ship goes into any port in the world, it receives exactly the same attention to detail it receives in any other part of the world. I think that would be good for the shipping industry. It would be good for governments to see that consistency applied. It would be good for safety.” 

The equivalent document last year raised the thorny issue of port state control corruption. But Mr Lomas does not consider this matter as particularly problematic at the moment. 

“We gave members the opportunity to send in reports. As you will see from the document, we did say we do not think this is a slur on the port state control industry. It was an opportunity for new guys that turn up to various ports to tell us if there are basic problems with professionalism. 

“We sat back and although we had a very small number of responses back, to that extent we were quite pleased because the ports that our members were actually going to seemingly had no major difficulties. There are niggles, there are irritations, but as an issue it is one of those things that has been slightly overstated.”