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Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) today said it plans to have Thailand as its new member this year for classifying ships.
Classifying ships
It has already won approvals to classify ships under 19 international flags, including Panama, Marshal Islands and Sri Lanka.
“We are expecting approval from the Thai maritime authority to start classifying ships this year,” said Mr S. Bharat, Chief Surveyor and Senior Vice-President in Singapore.
The Indian Register of Shipping is an internationally recognised independent ship classification society, founded in 1975.
Speaking at the SEA Asia 2011 conference and exhibition, he said, “Our focus is to expand business to classify more and more international ships for which we will have to build our infrastructure, including recruitments of ship surveyors”.
Ships classified
The IRClass has classified 1,500 ships and became a full member of the International Association of Classification Society last year.
IRClass has classified 200 ships owned by Sri Lankan and Maldives ship operators.
The remaining 1,300 IRClass-classified ships are Indian-owned.
Mr Bharat said he expected the IRClass domestic business to expand in the coming five years as the number of Indian fleet grows.
Fleet expansion
The Indian shipping fleet expansion was being driven by need to import coal and crude oil to meet increasing energy demand in the country, he added.
Indian shipping fleet is expected to expand by at least five per cent a year in tonnage terms to 13 million gross tonnes in five years from the current 10 million gross tonnes, he said.
About 15 to 20 new ships would be added to the Indian fleet in the next two years, said Mr Bharat.
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