The Hindu Business Line : Detention of Indian ships under PSC regulations causes concern

THE freight market boom and the introduction of tonnage tax in place of the stifling corporate tax may be having Indian shipping companies dancing to the sweet tunes of increased earnings. But one aspect that is threatening to take the wind out of the sails of these companies is the increased detention of Indian ships in foreign ports under the Port State Control (PSC) regulations, which is threatening to smear the image of Indian flag vessels.

Despite elaborate measures initiated by the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) to halt this trend, the number of detentions of Indian ships under PSC so far this year has crossed the total number of detentions in the whole of last year. "If this trend is not immediately halted, the image of Indian ships in the international area may take a serious beating, leading to the unseemly consequence of the ships getting almost banned from operations in the US, Paris and Tokyo MOU regions. More detentions indicate the falling standards of maintenance and house keeping of Indian ships," shipping analysts point out.

If 2003 was considered as a "bad year" on this score, this year the situation is worse, although there has been some improvement in the last few months. There was a "sudden spurt" in detentions of Indian flag vessels under various MOUs in the beginning of the year.

In the first eight months of 2004, there were as many as 16 detentions — six vessels under Indian Ocean MOU, four each under Paris and Tokyo MOUs and two under US Coast Guard (USCG).

As a matter of fact, the year began on a bad note for the Indian shipping industry on this score. Within the first six weeks alone, there had been five detentions — two vessels of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and one each of Essar Shipping, Sanmar and Surendra.

Shipping industry sources said this trend has kept India in the `Black List' in the medium-risk category under Paris MOU, `Grey List' under Tokyo MOU, while the country continued to figure in the USCG `Watch List' in 2004 for registering a detention ratio higher than the overall average.

"Apparently, in the ship owners' quest to squeeze the maximum economic mileage out of the current freight market boom, this aspect has not got the desired attention, which is not a healthy trend," a shipping analyst said.

Aware of the consequences of this trend, Indian shipping companies have, however, launched renewed and collective efforts, under the supervision of the DGS, water down the number of detentions, as also bring down the period of each detention.

"All round efforts are being made by the DGS, in consultation with the industry and the classification societies, to discuss the cause of detentions and to take urgent steps to avoid such detentions so as to improve our country's shipping record," a representative of the Indian National Shipowners Association (INSA) said.

In the beginning of this year, the DGS had proposed a string of measures to halt this trend. The measures include calling back any Indian vessel detained in a foreign port under PSC to the nearest Indian port, restricting any ship that is subjected to two PSC detentions in 12 months to Indian coasts till her condition is improved and mandatory one FSI inspection every year for every Indian flag foreign-going vessel.

"Although these measures were not implemented in letter and spirit, the DGS's campaign has significantly helped in slowing down the rate of detention," an informed source pointed out.