CESS annual meeting

The Committee for Expertise of Shipbuilding Specifics (CESS) held its annual meeting in San Francisco on 30 August when the members associations Japan, Europe, Korea and U.S.A. gathered and discussed key issues surrounding the global shipbuilding industry. Unfortunately, China was unable to attend this time.

The discussion was focused mainly on the review of its activities in the past year, what activities will be expected in the year ahead and the current IMO related topics and exchanged views to seek further cooperation in voicing opinion on those important issues. The attendants agreed that the activities in the past year contributed to strengthening of its recognition within the maritime sector and that there is a further need to intensify its activities to seek more contribution to the safety and environmental rule making by appealing to the related industries for practical solutions using the expertise of the shipbuilding industry.

The subjects of discussion encompassed the ongoing issues related to ship?s structures (common structural rules and goal-based standards), and coating standards (performance standards for ballast tank coatings and cargo tank coatings), and while positive appraisal of the achievements was made on these issues in the past year, it was agreed that continued cooperation is necessary, pursuing further means of effective coordination between the member associations. It was noted that as a result of the appeals made by CESS, development of an industry guideline on performance standards for ballast tank coating is in progress. There was a general consensus among the member associations that the element of maintenance and repair backed by appropriate cost benefit assessment based on experience is always necessary to be taken into consideration in the rule making process, in view of the practicality required to make these rules long-standing.

The intellectual property rights issue was discussed where it was agreed by the member associations that it is necessary to promote the awareness to related industries of the various opportunities of exposure to unwarranted release of proprietary information being faced by the shipbuilding industry, including the cases of documentation required by newly introduced rules in the future, such as the ship construction file for the goal-based standards.

The report on Port State Control activities both in Paris and Tokyo MOU were made and it was noted that both regions were steadily carrying out their activities as in the previous years. The common observation from the report was that failures and losses are largely dependent on management of the ship, and it will be necessary to emphasise the importance of carrying out proper repair and maintenance timely.