Dry bulk owners’ association Intercargo and RightShip — a privately held online vetting and risk manager — have agreed to jointly launch a common set of ship management standards for the sector.
The announcement on 21 January comes about five months after TradeWinds broke the news that the two organisations were joining forces to create a single set of self-assessment standards.
Known as DryBMS, the new guidelines will be governed by a new non-governmental organisation to be established later this year, Intercargo and RightShip said in a joint statement.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and Bimco support the endeavour.
A draft version of the standards is available on a dedicated website — drybms.org — and interested parties can send feedback.
“The introduction of DryBMS is yet another example of the industry's continued efforts to raise the bar on safety, environmental impact and operational excellence," said Guy Platten, secretary general of the ICS.
Intercargo chairman Dimitris Fafalios said the new guidelines “will deliver a truly robust standard with the buy-in of those that the industry relies upon to implement and support it”.
Widespread participation in the development of the standards made him confident that they will be adopted, said Steen Lund, chief executive officer of RightShip. "The rapid delivery of the initial consultation document means that we are a step closer to providing consistent, meaningful safety expectations for the dry bulk industry,” he said.
Talks began in September on standards that aim to help companies monitor their ship management performance in terms of safety, health and the environment.
The aim is to improve standards for managers and crews — from training and machinery maintenance to mooring, anchoring, bridge procedures, cyber security and incident reporting.
TradeWinds was told at the time that the jointly developed standard would be similar, but not identical, to the one adopted by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF), which manages benchmarks for the tanker and offshore industry.
Intercargo and RightShip used to work separately before, often in opposition to each other. RightShip in April 2020 announced its own Dry Bulk Management Standard (DBMS) project, which was inspired to some extent by the OCIMF.
RightShip’s initiative met with criticism from Intercargo, which publicly announced it would not endorse the DBMS standard and that it would stick to its own Dry Self Assessment Scheme, known as DRY-SAS, which it had been developing since 2019.
Creating confusion
The two organisations, however, ultimately came to the conclusion that separate projects would just duplicate work and create confusion in the industry.
The compromise offers mutual benefits.
Intercargo is a non-profit organisation representing owners who control about a quarter of the worldwide dry bulk fleet. However, the association saw some of its members break ranks and participate in the RightShip scheme.
RightShip, on the other hand, lacked Intercargo's broad base and institutional character. It is a private entity owned by heavyweight charterers Rio Tinto, Cargill and BHP, and some shipowners were critical of its ratings.
