The top-performing open ship registries in the world have been revealed by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control.
The Paris MoU ranks flag states each year by safety and compliance performance and publishes the results in its “White-Grey-Black” list every year. The top of the White List represents the best-performing flag states.
The methodology is pretty complicated but, in summary, the list is based on the total number of inspections and detentions of ships by Port State control during a three year-rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections during the reference period. Tens of thousands of ship inspections are carried out.
There are seventy countries listed in the whole White-Grey-Black List. There are 30 countries in the White List.
The top 15 in the White List are:
- Denmark
- Norway
- Marshall Islands
- Bermuda (UK)
- Netherlands
- Bahamas
- Greece
- Singapore
- Cayman Islands
- Japan
- Hong Kong
- Liberia
- United Kingdom
- Malta
- Germany
Readers will note that the White List contains a mixture of non-open registries (those that require a connection with the country in which the ship is to be flagged) and open registries, such as Bermuda, the Bahamas and Singapore.
Shipping Australia CEO, Melwyn Noronha commented, “we congratulate all those flag states at the top of the White List for their excellent performance. We also particularly note the presence of large numbers of open registries in the White List. Their presence in the White List reveals the falseness of the commonly repeated narrative that open registries are somehow worse performers by virtue of being open registries.
“But, given the presence of open registries in the top rankings of a safety and compliance list comprised of many tens of thousands of inspections, they are clearly excellent performers.
“In truth, excellent performance is caused by a commitment from the ship operator to safety, compliance and quality. Poor flag state performance is poor because of absence of commitment to those values. Despite assertions to the contrary, flag state performance has little-to-nothing to do with the mere fact of nationality.
“Commentators to the contrary will, of course, never admit to this truth because it runs contrary to their own prejudices and / or their own self-interest. But, armed with this information in the White-Grey-Black list, readers should know what term to apply to the material released by those who peddle such blatantly false narratives.
“And that’s: Fake News!“
