The Isle of Man Ship Registry has brought in its first permanent China representative to capitalise on what it sees as massive growth potential in the country.
Naval architect, newbuilding project manager and Mandarin speaker Jonathan Kingdon has taken up the post from his base in Shanghai, where he also heads the Asia operation of Graig's marine inspection company Idwal.
The flag's director, Cameron Mitchell, said China is a key market, with many of its clients dry-docking and building ships there.
"We are delighted to appoint someone of Jonathan’s experience and expertise to strengthen our presence in China," Mitchell added.
Raising awareness
"As well as helping with inspections on the ground, Jonathan will also be raising awareness of all the key and value-added benefits of the Isle of Man flag with Chinese shipyards, shipowners, operators and finance houses."
China has huge and exciting market potential for the flag and is building "quality ships" for many of its European shipping clients, Mitchell said. Prominent among these are Greek tanker and bulker owners.
The registry expects to be working more closely with the China Classification Society (CCS), which is itself seeing massive growth, both in numbers and diversity within its fleet.
Working with CCS
"We expect to work more with CCS and we are interested to share expertise with them in green technology, LNG, LPG, non-carbon based fuel powered ships and intelligent ships, areas where CCS is undertaking extensive research and development," Mitchell said.
The registry already has a network of overseas representatives in Greece, Japan and Singapore.
Two thirds of the fleet is now managed from Asia.
Kingdon said a key message he will be taking to the Chinese market is the registry’s ability to offer indefinite "favoured-nation status" to Chinese shipowners. This offers preferential tonnage dues equating to a 28% saving for a newcastlemax.
"I am really pleased to join the Isle of Man team and build the profile of such a well-respected flag here in China," Kingdon added.
The registry has no annual tonnage tax based on ship size, no inspection or consular charges and no casualty investigation fees, as well as a discount for multi-ship fleets and incentives for environmentally friendly vessels.
Robust regulations
"Critically we also offer a robust but pragmatic regulatory framework which only applies the requirements of the international conventions, rules and regulations to make the construction process as straight forward as possible for Chinese shipyards," Kingdon said.
The Isle of Man register has 400 ships and 15m tonnes sailing under its flag, including many gas tankers and bulkers.
In November, the register became the first flag state to join the Getting to Zero Coalition, which aims to drive shipping's decarbonisation agenda by developing commercially viable deepsea zero-emission vessels by 2030.
It also became the first flag to issue acceptance of a modification to a BW LPG VLGC allowing it to run on LPG.
