Tokyo MoU: Ship detentions drop in 2018, ISM remains key cause

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Above image is used for illustration purposes only / Credit: IMO

Tokyo MoU: Ship detentions drop in 2018, ISM remains key cause

A total of 934 ships registered under 63 flags were detained due to serious deficiencies onboard in the Tokyo MoU region in 2018, according to the recently-published Tokyo MoU annual report on PSC. The number of detentions, the detention rate and number of under-performing ships continued to decrease in 2018. ISM remained one of the most prevalent causes of detention.

International Safety Management remains one of the most prevalent causes of detention and this is not necessarily related to material defects. Similarly, the need to consider how vessels comply with ‘operational requirements’ and the crews’ understanding of critical shipboard procedures is becoming an important part of the Tokyo MOU’s focus,

…noted Alex Schultz-Altmann, Chair, PSC Committee, and Hideo Kubota, Secretary, Tokyo MOU Secretariat.

Ship detentions in Tokyo MoU- 2018

  • 934 ships registered under 63 flags were detained due to serious deficiencies.
  • The detention rate of ships inspected was 2.96%.
  • Both the number of detentions and detention percentage has decreased continuously.

Detentions per ship type

  • The black-grey-white list for 2016-2018 consists of 68 flags, an increase of two from last year.
  • The number of flags in the black list is 12, one flag more than last year. The number of flags on the grey list decreased from 18 to 16 during the reporting period.
  • The white list increased from 37 to 40 flags.
  • A total of 76 vessels, involving 19 individual ships, were identified as under-performing ships in 2018, the number of which is continuously decreasing.

Figure 5 shows the detention rate by flag for flags where at least 20 port State control inspections had been conducted and whose detention rate was above the average regional rate

Ship deficiencies

  • A total of 73,441 deficiencies were recorded in 2018.
  • It has been noted that fire safety measures, safety of navigation and life-saving appliances continue to be the top three categories of deficiencies discovered on ships.
  • In 2018, 13,340 deficiencies related to fire safety measures, 10,127 safety of navigation related deficiencies and 9,363 deficiencies related to life-saving appliances were recorded, representing 45% of the total number of all recorded deficiencies.

Deficiencies by main categories

  • In 2018, deficiencies reduced by 2,667 in number or 3.50% by percentage. The reduction is found mainly in categories of crew certificates, fire safety, safety of navigation, life-saving appliances and ISM.
  • On the other hand, deficiencies under categories of pollution prevention have increased by 2,095 or 43% in 2018, of which number of deficiencies relating to BWM Convention was three times more than that in 2017 and, as the results of CIC of the year, number of deficiencies on MARPOL Annex VI was nearly doubled as in 2017.

Figure 8 illustrates the most frequent detainable deficiencies found during inspections, among which detainable deficiencies on Fire-dampers (Fire safety) was the highest

Comparison of the most frequent detainable deficiencies

Further details may be found here below:

Source: SAFETY4SEA