Leading representatives of the dry bulk shipowning community have called for applying vetting, that has become the norm for shipowners, to other influential stakeholders in the industry.

“We support regulations when they are practical but there is a lack of other stakeholders facilitating the smooth implementation of regulations,” said John Platsidakis, chairman of international dry bulk owners’ body Intercargo. “Owners are vetted by banks, charterers, RightShip, all kinds of bodies, but what about charterers?”
Mr Platsidakis said that a long-term goal of Intercargo was to encourage the formation of a dry cargo charterers’ assessment scheme that would be “in their own interest” as it would enable quality charterers to promote their performance in such aspects as payment, safety, quality control and crew welfare. “We feel it is a must,” he said.

Speaking at meetings of Intercargo’s executive and technical committees in Athens, owners said that the urgency for the dry bulk sector lay partly in the fact that, unlike the oil tanker industry, owners could be prey to hundreds of smaller charterers in addition to the major players.

A similar need related to dry bulk terminals, committee members said. “It is different to the oil industry, which is highly regulated,” said Dimitris Fafalios, chairman of Intercargo’s technical committee. “Unfortunately we are still in the Stone Age.”

Bulkers were often obliged to occupy berths unsuited to the size of vessel and were sent to terminals that had not been dredged, resulting in having to await the next tide.

Intercargo also expressed disappointment at the response from terminals on providing reception facilities and especially in providing proper treatment for residues and hold washings from cargoes that are classed as harmful to the marine environment. “Regrettably ports have not come along and we plan to ask the IMO to implement those rules,” Mr Platsidakis said. Intercargo has recently proposed a “model port reception facilities” concept to help identify the way forward.

In trying to promote greater self-assessment in other quarters of the maritime industry, Intercargo will not have been much encouraged by the response so far in its outreach to port state control authorities.

Motivated by numerous everyday stories from members of corruption in certain ports, the association wrote to all regional Memorandum of Understanding secretariats well over a year ago to persuade them to establish internal affairs desks so that abuses could be safely reported and properly investigated. According to Mr Platsidakis, not one has agreed to take such action. “I don’t see why not. We need a mechanism to register problems without fear of retaliation,” he said.