Tripartite meeting discusses industry challenges

The meeting was hosted by Class NK, the Japanese Shipowners’ Association (JSA) and Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan (SAJ), and organised this year by the International Chamber of Shipping (ISC).

Having been held every year since 2002, it was decided that it was time to look back on the forum’s achievements and work on its future aspirations.

At the meeting one of the milestones of the IMO Goal Based Standards (GBS) for bulk carriers and oil tankers, which entered into force for ships contracted for construction from July 2016 was discussed.

The Tripartite Meetings have helped to oversee inter-industry agreement about the handling of the content of a Ship Construction File (SCF), as required by the GBS.

SCF’s purpose is to provide information related to the structural design and construction of a ship to those that need it, to help ensure safe operation throughout the vessel’s working life.

During the meeting, ICS raised the importance of collating knowledge on likely ship efficiency improvements from shipbuilders so that better estimates can be made of CO2 reduction performance.

Following an introduction by Intertanko, all parties agreed that better information flow and data-basing was required on incidents related to ship construction and operation.

It was also decided that there is to be further work on cyber risks and security, being led by IACS but assisted by BIMCO which led development of recent inter-industry guidance on the issue. While work is set to continue on fuel data collection – also under the leadership of the IASC.

Finally, the meeting reflected on requirements directly arising from regulation and it agreed that the ICS would initiate the collection of experience with fitting and operation of ballast water treatment.

The Tripartite Meeting will reconvene in China in 2017.