At its 48th meeting last month, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2014 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flags and Recognized Organizations. These lists will take effect from 1 July 2015, Paris MoU said in its press release.
The “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” presents the full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. It is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a 3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period.
On the “White, Grey and Black list” for 2014, a total number of 72 flags are listed: 43 on the “White List”, 19 on the “Grey List” and 10 on the “Black list”. In 2013 the number of flags listed totalled 75 flags, namely 46 on the “White List”, 19 on the “Grey List” and 10 on the “Black List”.
The “White List” represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Compared with 2013, the number of flags on the “White List” has decreased by 3 flags to a total number of 43 flags. New on the “White List” is India, which was on the “Grey List” last year.
France has been placed highest on the list in terms of performance for the third year in a row. The next in line of the best performing flags in 2014 are Hong Kong, Bahamas, Norway and Sweden.
Flags with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”. Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the “White List”. At the same time flags at the lower end of the “Grey List” should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the “Black List” next year.
On this year’s “Grey List” a total number of 19 flags is recorded. Last year the “Grey List” also recorded 19 flags. New on the “Grey List” are Spain, Lithuania, Poland and Thailand, which last year were on the “White List”.
Belize has fallen from the “Grey List” to the “Black List”. The poorest performing flags are the United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Moldova, Togo, Cook Islands and Dominica.
For several years the Committee has closely monitored the performance of classification societies acting as ROs or flags. To calculate the performance of the Recognized Organizations, the same formula to calculate the excess factor of the flags is used. A minimum number of 60 inspections per RO are needed before the performance is taken into account for the list. In 2014 37 ROs are recorded on the performance list.
Among the best performing Recognized Organizations were:
DNV GL AS (DNVGL)
Det Norske Veritas (DNV)
Lloyd’s Register (LR)
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
China Classification Society (CCS)
The lowest performing Recognized Organizations were:
INCLAMAR
International Register of Shipping (IS)
Bulgarian Register of Shipping (BRS)
Compared with last year’s performance level, a small shift in RO performance in 2014 can be noticed. This year fewer organisations have been placed in the very low and low performing parts of the list and more organisations have been placed in the medium part of the list.
On 1 July 2015 the performance lists will be used for calculating the ship risk profile and flags on the “Grey List” and “Black List” are subject to the more stringent banning measures in force since 1 January 2011. More information can be found in the 2014 Annual Report, which will be released in July 2015.