Port state control inspection in the shipping world - a safety and social responsibility

Merchant shipping has undergone a great transformation in the past four decades. The ship manager or the ship owner has to tackle great challenges ahead of them, to successfully load, move and discharge cargo from Port A to Port B. At every port, the vessels will undergo a Port State Control inspection by competent maritime authorities of the host nation, to ensure that the vessels comply with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations, concerning safety of life at sea and marine pollution. Deficiencies discovered at such Port State Control inspections, hereafter referred to as “PSC” inspections, may result in detentions of vessels in ports leading to a serious downtime for vessels and huge costs to ship owners and managers. In some cases this has also led to loss of charter. This paper aims to look at developing a “Global Checklist for PSC”, which would suffice for any Port State Control regime worldwide. To design such a checklist, we need to look at data provided by various port state control authorities around the globe, and reasons for detention of vessels around the globe. As players of the maritime industry we need to address this issue of PSC inspection, as a part of our social responsibility. This will add immense value to the maritime safety in the modern commercial shipping world.