The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has published its annual Shipping Industry Flag State Performance Table, warning that there are a number of smaller flag states that still have considerable work to do, and shipowners may wish to think very carefully about using such flags.
The largest of these is Tanzania, but Mongolia, Moldova, Cambodia and Sierra Leone are also conspicuous examples of sub-standard ship registers according to the ICS Table.
“One area on which we would like to see more progress by certain flag states, including some of those with otherwise better performance, is with respect to ratification of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention” said ICS Secretary General Peter Hinchliffe. “But following the entry into force of the MLC it is now being enforced worldwide through Port State Control and the vast the majority of international shipping companies are operating in compliance, with the exception of the official flag state certification.”
ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe commended the largest flag states for continuing to demonstrate impressive levels of performance.
Amongst the 19 largest ships registers, covering more than 85% of the world fleet, none have more than three potential indicators of negative performance.
Given the nature of the indicators that ICS uses, whether or not a flag is missing one or two green squares on the ICS Table may not be especially important. For example, the fact that a certain IMO Convention may not have been ratified by a flag state does not necessarily mean that its requirements are not being implemented in practice.