China has moved to ease crew change restrictions by opening up 10 ports as it comes to terms with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Shipowners organisation Bimco's Shanghai office said seven Chinese governmental bodies including the ministry of transportation (MOT) issued a notice last week to this effect.
Foreign crew change operations will resume on certain conditions.
The 10 ports are: Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Haikou.
Bimco said that foreign seafarers signing off must comply with Chinese entry regulations and acquire a valid departing air, ship or bus ticket.
The disembarking point must have a facility to arrange transfers to the outbound point within the same city.
The ship in question must not have called at an overseas port within the last two weeks and a "sound" health and quarantine record must have been maintained.
Customs checks needed
Crew changes will then be permitted after clearance by Chinese customs after a "quarantine checkout", together with a negative nucleic acid test result.
Shipowners must also rent a car to transfer foreign crew members from the disembarking point to the outbound point directly, or to another outbound ship, without any further stay in China.
Bimco advises owners to closely monitor the port’s local quarantine conditions, and implement closed-loop management for the quarantine requirements.
The notice also introduces a quarantine circuit-breaker mechanism.
This means changeovers will be suspended for 15 days if five positive tests have been logged on a vessel.
The suspension will be extended to 30 days for 10 cases.
New assessments may be required
If more than 10 positives are recorded, the shipowner must pass a "fresh assessment" conducted by the relevant authorities, Bimco added.
"It is Bimco’s understanding that the various Chinese ports may take different pragmatic approaches when dealing with the foreign crew change," the organisation said.
"In practice, the final say lies ultimately with the local port government (the city's leading group office of epidemic prevention and control) instead of the MOT in Beijing."
Last month, TradeWinds reported that China had tightened health checks on seafarers in international trade after four crew aboard a Cosco Shipping Lines-operated boxship tested positive for Covid-19.
This included the 14-day foreign-port rule.
Seafarers were also required to test negative at health institutes approved by China’s foreign embassies before boarding their ships.
