United States demands Panama expel ships from Iran

  The Department of the Treasury of the United States (EU) asked Panama to expel from the Merchant Navy the ships that belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran or to Iranian companies. The order seeks to comply with the sanctions applied on November 5, 2018 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury of… Read more →

Panama must refrain from flagging Iranian ships

Authorities of the Department of the Treasury of the United States met yesterday with representatives of the Panama Maritime Authority, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the lawyers’ association. Panama asked its consuls, located in different diplomatic representations in the world, not to receive any payment for taxes and fees from the vessels coming from or from companies of the… Read more →

BWMC implementation: The time for delays and denial is over

Mr. Mark Riggio, President of the Ballastwater Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (BEMA) talks about the current challenges toward BWMC implementation, highlighting that the deadline for a BWTS installation expires, thus the sooner they start planning, the better. As explained, more than 80% of the world’s fleet by tonnage flies the flag of an Administration signatory to the Convention. That means for… Read more →

How environmental compliance challenges PSC

  Environmental compliance has always been under review and close monitoring in shipping, thus the industry has introduced numerous of regulations aiming to reduce pollution globally and in specific areas (ECAs, US ports, EU ports, Arctic zones, MARPOL Special Areas etc.). But what happens when economic cost is an obstacle to organizations’ ecological decisions? There is no doubt that an… Read more →

Paris and Tokyo MoUs start issuing sulphur cap warning letters

  By Sam Chambers The maritime authorities of the Paris and the Tokyo Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on Port State Control have started issuing letters of warning from the start of this year on the sulphur content of marine fuels during inspections in order to increase awareness of and to encourage timely compliance with the new 0.5% requirements set to kick… Read more →

USA Ballast Water Management Reform

  By Dennis L. Bryant. The article discusses the recently enacted Vessel Incidental Discharge Act of 2018 (VIDA). The Act greatly reforms the process for regulation of ballast water discharges into waters of the United States. It not only brings the US Ballast Water Management (BWM) regulatory scheme into closer alignment with the international standard, but it also largely eliminates… Read more →

CCS enjoys meteoric 2018 to surpass Bureau Veritas

y Sam Chambers China Classification Society (CCS) had a banner 2018 with more than 10m gt of ships joining the Beijing-headquartered company. Clarksons Research’s latest World Fleet Monitor with data taken from January 1 this year shows the huge growth saw CCS leapfrog France’s Bureau Veritas (BV) to become the world’s fifth largest ship classification society. In September last year… Read more →

Liberia retakes silver spot on the flag podium

By: Sam Chambers Two old foes have traded places in the ship registry league. Liberia has returned to second spot behind Panama, overhauling the Marshall Islands, according to the latest data from Clarksons Research World Fleet Monitor. The senior management behind International Registries, Inc, which administer the Marshall Islands were in charge of the Liberian flag until the turn of… Read more →