Keeping up standards in the world’s tanker and bulker fleets
THE Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) is not an organisation anybody outside the shipping industry is likely to be familiar with. The proverbial man on the street is more likely to associate the word “tanker” with the risk of oil spills and, increasingly nowadays, with the use of the much-maligned fossil fuels; the average Joe is thus unlikely to link the OCIMF to promoting high safety standards among the vast majority of the global tanker fleet.
Working quietly in the background, the grouping describes itself as a “voluntary association of oil companies with an interest in the shipment and terminalling of crude oil, oil products, petrochemicals and gas”. It focuses exclusively on “preventing harm to people and the environment by promoting best practices in the design, construction and operation of tankers, barges and offshore vessels and their interfaces with terminals”.
The OCIMF’s principal activity is running the Ship Inspection Report Programme (Sire), which assesses a tanker’s condition and operational standards. It has begun the phased roll-out of its new digitalised tanker inspection programme, Sire 2.0, which will replace the existing version.
But Sire 2.0 is more than just a digitalised version of the current programme. I understand that, among other things, it goes further to take into account the human element and how easy it is for crew to work safely and efficiently on a vessel. The OCIMF’s stated vision, after all, is for “a global marine industry that causes no harm to people or the environment”.
Still on the subject of shipping-industry safety initiatives, the dry-bulk carrier organisation Intercargo has issued a statement highlighting the performance of its members’ vessels.
It says that, despite a steady increase in port state control detention rates following the global pandemic, its entered vessels have consistently outdone industry performance indicators in both deficiencies and detentions.
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The latest edition of its annual benchmarking report, titled Benchmarking Bulk Carriers 2022-2023, provides information on detention rates and deficiencies per inspection (DPI) across flag states, classes, insurers and port state control (PSC). It also provides data on owners’ benchmarking and a review of the negative performance indicators affecting the sector.
DPI rates have remained unchanged and in line with previous years’ benchmarking reports. Eleven leading Class Societies are members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), a non-governmental organisation that classes more than 95 per cent of the bulk-carrier market.
IACS-classed vessels, scoring an average of 1.69 DPI, performed significantly better than non-IACS-classed ones, which scored 4.31. In other words, a small segment of the bulker industry is currently operating at significantly lower standards of safety and efficiency.
Intercargo notes that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) tops the list of the nine regional PSC authorities and two national PSC regimes, running up a detention rate of 8.52 per cent for vessels calling at Australian ports. The average detention rate across all port authorities is 2.34 per cent. It noted that AMSA “also has the worst DPI rate at 3.98, versus the average across all authorities of 1.55”.
Whether “worst” is the right word is debatable. Australian PSC inspectors are well-known for being strict and thorough. That might be uncomfortable for operators of substandard ships, but can hardly be seen as a bad thing. You could equally well say Australian ports have the best DPI rate.
In 2022, the global bulk-carrier fleet was registered with 92 flag states, an increase of four from 2021. Of the 92, 15 have fleets of 100 bulk carriers or more, and account for almost 90 per cent of the global bulker fleet. Panama, Marshall Islands and Liberia continue to be the three dominant flags; Bangladesh joined this leading line-up in 2022 with 104 registered vessels.
Commenting on the 2022-2023 report, Paul Markides, marine quality manager at Intercargo, said: “As the 14th edition of the benchmarking report shows, our members are making great efforts to help us to achieve our ambitious aims and objectives, and we commend them for this.”
He added: “Detention rates and DPI rates are once again both lower for Intercargo members, and it is pleasing to see that while there has been an overall increase in detention rates in the industry as a whole, the ratio of members’ vessels being detained as part of the total dry-bulk fleet fell in 2022.”
That is good news, to an extent. But it does mean there are plenty of relatively poor-quality bulkers out there. And it raises the question of whether the dry-bulk fleet needs something more like Sire.
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