Tokyo MOU detain 830 ships

The Tokyo MOU`s annual report shows that during 1997 its member states carried out almost 13,000 Port State Control inspections from almost 25 thousand vessels calling at their ports. Over 7,500 vessels were found to have a total of 41,000 deficiencies and 830 were detained.

While the overall rate for inspections was 52 per cent, only four of the 15 nations had inspection rates over 20 per cent for the full year, with New Zealand and Australia achieving over 85 and 65 per cent respectively. Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia had inspection rates of only 8.2, 2.8 and 0.68 per cent.

Detentions were on average 6.4 per cent – the highest was in Hong Kong (38.3 per cent) and 19 per cent in Canada`s Pacific ports. Numerically Australia and Hong Kong both detained around 200 vessels with Japan and Korea both around the 120 mark.