SINGAPORE SHIPPING
ASSOCIATION
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PRESENTATION BY SINGAPORE SHIPPING ASSOCIATION |
APEC 17TH
TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP MEETING
MEETING OF THE
EXPERTS GROUP ON MARITIME SAFETY
Tuesday, 28 March 2000
Mr Richard Day, Chairman
Distinguished Delegates
Thank you for your invitation to me to speak at this Experts Group Meeting on Maritime Safety. I am happy to be here to share with you some of the issues and concerns of the Singapore Shipping Association with regard to Maritime Safety.
Singapore Shipping Association
For those who may not know who we are, please allow me to briefly introduce my Association. The Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) was founded in 1985. It was an integration of five previous shipping and shipowners' associations. At the time of formation, the Association was known as Singapore National Shipping Association (SNSA). However, in 1997 the Association was restructured and became known as Singapore Shipping Association. The restrucuturing was undertaken to re-position it better to keep pace with the fast-changing shipping environment.
The Association took its present name, Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) because the Association had been open to non-nationals as well. The new name better reflects the multi-national composition of its membership and projects a more international outlook. It was also a shipping and not a solely shipowners' association because the Association caters to the entire spectrum of shipping interests including, among others, ship finance, ship insurance, maritime law, ship classification, ship broking and chartering.
The Association is managed by a Council. Constitutionally, there are also two administrative and four operational standing committees. The issues and concerns that I will briefly address today are mainly derived from discussions in our International and Technical Standing Committees.
The Erika
As most of you would have read from the news media on 12 December 1999, a 25 years old Maltese flag oil tanker known as Erika broke into two off the French Atlantic coast in severe weather and spilled about 15,000 tonnes of her heavy fuel oil cargo. The spilt cargo subsequently polluted 400 km length of the French coastline.
The grounding of the ship had therefore given rise to many questions as to who is to be blamed or responsible for the damages created. Nowadays, ships undergo a whole host of inspections including Port State Control, vetting by oil majors, yearly class inspections, yearly flag-state inspections and also class’s special surveys every five years.
The debate on whether the Erika was a substandard ship is still continuing in Europe. Discussion in the news media so far seems to strongly suggest that the Erika was a substandard ship. Until the full and detailed investigation report is published by the French Government, it is certainly premature to jump to any quick conclusion.
However, the European Commission was fast to react strongly and pledged to clamp down on unsafe oil tankers. The French government also sets out a new charter that is designed to tighten the maritime safety of oil tankers calling at French ports.
The SSA, which is monitoring developments on the Erika very closely, upholds the principles of quality shipping. It maintains that sub-standard shipping should be removed as it poses a real danger to the safe navigation of other ships, the lives at sea and the cargo on board. Further, our marine environment will need to be safeguarded.
Our Singaporean and other Asian tanker owners and operators are however concerned that regional initiatives which will be taken in Europe will effectively drive substandard tonnages out from there. They will now be deployed in other parts of the world, including Asia, and therefore penalise the quality owners and operators and compromise on the good safety record that has been achieved by the tanker industry worldwide. Of particular concern are the EU measures calling for an accelerated phasing out of older single hull tankers.
An influx of poor quality tonnage to other regions will prompt an increase in the number of port state control inspections. Where the inspection programme is not properly targeted, there will be no discrimination between quality and substandard operators, and everyone will be saddled with proliferating inspections. Greater concentrations of substandard ships in certain parts of the world will also increase the risk of accidents at specific regional choke points and congested waterways, e.g. the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
Another worry is that such an influx will put undue pressures on Asian authorities as some of them will not be able to monitor and control the situation due to a lack of resources.
The Singapore shipping community are fully in agreement with SSA's stated position on this issue. As the shipping industry is a global activity, the SSA is of the strong view that any initiative to amend the existing international maritime safety regime should be done through the offices of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The unanimous view was that regional solutions do not rid the oceans of substandard operators. They just go elsewhere and continue to enjoy the benefits of operational costs which run at 30-40 per cent less than the commitment made by quality operators. Substandard operators will only disappear when all the participants in the shipping chain work together to ensure rigorous implementation of the IMO safety regime on a worldwide basis.
Port State Control
On the subject of Port State control, the SSA had noted that at a meeting of the Tokyo MOU Port State Control Committee held in Singapore recently, a new set of amendments to the Memorandum was considered and adopted. These amendments, which will be implemented on 1 October 2000, include the adjustment to the regional inspection percentage from 50% to 75%.
In the interests of maritime safety, the SSA supports Port State Control in its efforts to weed out sub-standard shipping. However, there is an obvious need for the members of the various Port State Control regimes to maintain uniform, consistent and transparent inspection criteria in line with the IMO requirements so that ships are not unfairly penalised or detained. Officers engaged to conduct Port State Control inspections should be fully qualified and competent.
The SSA also considers it important for an efficient and transparent data-based system to be set up. The quality of the data, the availability of information and the efficiency of communication links are all very important as more port state control regimes are formed around the world, especially in areas where corruption might be endemic.
Piracy and Armed Robbery
Another area which our Association is deeply concerned with is the increasing and worsening trend of pirate attacks and armed robbery on innocent ships around the world. As an association of shipowners and operators, the SSA strongly condemns all acts of piracy, armed robbery and ship hijacking.
Based on the annual report of the International Maritime Bureau based in Kuala Lumpur, piracy attacks worldwide were up by 40 per cent last year as compared with 1998, totalling 285 reported attacks. Of the 285 reported incidents 57 per cent occurred in Asian waters. Continuing economic and political instability in some countries is seen as a likely contributory factor.
With respect to incidents in Asian waters, the SSA has appealed to all coastal states in the region to take actions immediately to suppress the problem. We are of the view that there should be strong co-operation and political will among the governments of the coastal states to fight piracy to safeguard crews and ships trading to their countries. It is indeed the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies of the various Asian governments to protect the shipping community against such maritime crimes.
Last October , the SSA, jointly with the Society of International Laws in Singapore, organised a piracy seminar in Singapore. To safeguard the interests of international shipping in the Asian region, the Seminar has strongly recommended that Asian countries should :
The SSA noted that the Rome Convention regulates relations among signatory nations and imposes obligation on existing signatories to pursue prosecutions of pirate if they were caught.
An agreement has also been reached at the ASEAN summit meeting held in Manila last November. The agreement called for a conference to be convened among the coastal surveillance authorities of ASEAN and other Asian states to take concerted and quick actions against piracy and armed robberies.
The SSA fully supports the regional initiative, and has urged the shipping community to play an active role in establishing effective anti-piracy measures to protect their ships in close collaboration with the relevant government agencies.
Stowaways
The SSA is also concerned with the problem of stowaways, the dangers that they would pose to the safety of navigation and the crew, and the high cost incurred by shipowners in handling and repatriating them to their countries of origin. Shipowners are fully aware of the risks of stowaways boarding their vessels. As part of their precautionary measures, they will post gangway watches and mount regular patrols to stop unauthorised persons boarding their ships. Despite the very stringent and thorough procedures for all ship officers and crew to check, ensure and comply with, stowaways can still sneak aboard their ships at any port that their ships call at. Most of these stowaways however come from developing or underdeveloped countries and are heading for European or North American countries for better lives, employment or to seek political asylum.
As soon as any stowaways are found, the shipowner is saddled with a big financial burden of providing for their well-being, health, safety and their final repatriation. Besides, their presence on board will pose a real danger to safe navigation and operational activity of the ship, and the lives and safety of the crew.
No shipowners would therefore want to be burdened with stowaways for reasons that have been explained earlier. Furthermore, the procedures on the repatriation of stowaways, especially those whose identities are difficult to establish, are often ambiguous and may differ from country to country. This therefore creates a lot of uncertainties and anxieties on the part of shipowners and operators.
At the IMO Assembly 20th Session held in 1997, a resolution, A871 (20), of Guidelines on the Allocation of Responsibilities to Seek the Successful Resolution of Stowaway Cases was passed. Three years have since gone by but we have yet to know of any member government of IMO that has adopted the resolution.
Whilst acknowledging the efforts by the IMO in this respect, the SSA urges governments to seriously adopt the IMO guidelines to facilitate shipowners in repatriating stowaways. The SSA also strongly urges port authorities and relevant agencies to tighten their port security to prevent stowaways or illegal immigrants from getting easy access to the ship.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What I have presented earlier are only some of the issues and concerns that the SSA has addressed. As I was given only 15 minutes for my presentation, it is therefore not possible for me to give you a full run down of all our activities relating to maritime safety. However, if you have any questions about the Association or the issues that I have mentioned, I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. On this note, I thank you for giving this opportunity to speak at this meeting.
Thank you.
This page was last updated on 17 May 2000
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