Sea Views: Row between IACS members boils over

Ongoing rifts between members of the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) resurfaced last week. French society, Bureau Veritas (BV) and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) both reacted angrily to suggestions made at a recent tanker safety seminar held in New York by Det Norske Veritas (DNV).

The comments were made by DNV boss, Helge Midttun, and suggested that the size of the organisation should be slashed and referred to some members being of higher grade than others.

"It is complete nonsense to suggest that any three or four or five class societies can alone improve ship safety," said Bernard Anne, head of BV's marine division.

"It is also counter productive. BV has been fighting to improve the standards of all ships and all class societies. We believe IACS is united behind that aim, but that unity is strained, and global ship safety suffers, when members try, for commercial advantage, to portray themselves as better than others."

Echoing the sentiments of BV, Igor Ponomarev of the Russian Register, who is also the current chairman of IACS, said he was "surprised" at Midttun's comments.

He added that they undermined all the good efforts and results achieved at an IACS forum with leading industry representatives that was held last December.

He also stressed the strong bonds of unity present within the organisation.

"IACS firstly focuses on the technical policy of the association for the benefit of safety, we are very much united in our efforts in this respect. If one wants a safe industry, one needs to lend one's support to further technical developments."

In a short statement that did not refer to Midttun's earlier suggestions, DNV's Terje Staal-stroem supported Ponomarev's words on unified standards. "Members compete on service delivery and not on technical standards," he said.

In an oblique reference to one of the so called 'big three' breakaway members of IACS, Anne added:

"Owners can think for themselves, and many, like me, can remember which society led the way in trying to convince owners to use more high tensile steel, thus sowing the seeds of many of our problems today.

"I am a naval architect, and when I, in the 80's, as a shipowner, was approached by that class society, now trying to pose as leading the way to more robust ships, with the proposition that we should reduce scantlings in our new buildings by using more high tensile steel, I refused.

"That meant a cost penalty for my company, but we got the safe and robust ships we wanted. I still believe in that, and believe it should be applied by everyone, and that it can only be achieved through co-operation in IACS, not by public posing."

BV has recently increased its deck strength requirements for tankers to above the levels set by some other societies.

"We practice what we preach, rather than just criticising others. We urge our colleagues to catch up, and we will help those who need it," said Anne.

He then added that BV was happy to share its development work with others.

"Co-operation is the only way to improve safety globally. We have proposed solutions to bulk carrier safety problems which might reduce risk of losses, but we cannot impose them globally, and neither can any other society.

"We can only make ships more robust by working together. I call on my colleagues to stop telling everyone how good they are and focus their energies instead on making ships more robust."

Igor Ponamarev said: "There may be those who may want to use competition amongst individual members of the association to their advantage, however, the association does not exist to promote individual interests and its members will co-operate in unity to promote the highest level of IACS standards."

Intertanko against IACS cut: Responding to newspaper reports that its U.S.-based director Dragos Rauta had agreed with the call to cull 'bad' members of IACS, the independent tanker owners organisation, Intertanko, has said it is against any reduction of IACS membership.

Peter Swift, managing director, Intertanko, denied the reports. He said, on the contrary, that Intertanko policy was "totally behind" what IACS was trying to achieve and that it had no problem with IACS' membership criteria.

Swift did say that Intertanko would like more consultation at an earlier stage about IACS' technical decisions and he thought there may have been a misunderstanding because Mr Rauta had said that individual societies were better at consulting with the shipping industry than IACS.

He added that Intertanko would like various technical issues to be addressed by IACS, such as the removal of negative tolerances on steel thickness, and it would also like continued work on uniformity of standards.

PRS calls for non-IACS safety involvement: Former IACS member, Polski Rejestr Statkow (PRS) has added his views to the IACS infighting by saying that steps to improve quality of ships at sea should not exclude non-IACS members, but be an inclusive process.

Dr Jan Jankowski, president of PRS said: "Safety - a supreme and ultimate value to which everyone is entitled - is the common value that should dictate the full and effective co-operation of all involved in its application and assurance."

PRS added that only about 50 per cent of the world fleet is classed by IACS members, while many of the remaining vessels are not classed at all.

Restricting discussions and action on assuring safety to only IACS or, indeed, the 'big three' (LR, ABS and DNV) meant, in effect, neglecting the other 50 per cent. Furthermore, in addition to the 12 IACS-associated societies, PRS noted there were over 50 organisations dealing with classification work and/or supervision of safety, as shown in the IMO list.

"Some of these have the capability, capacity and willingness to contribute to or take on safety duties and responsibilities," said Dr Jankowski.

"These could be assisted and upgraded provided they are not commercially driven. Marginalising the role of capable institutions will not solve the problem nor make their ships disappear. It would be more constructive to bring them into the safety fold."

Jankowski went on to suggest that IACS could then use its technical expertise to lead moves for more uniform implementation of adequate ship safety standards for the worldwide fleet.