Ships flying the Singapore flag are closing on the symbolic 100m gross tonnage mark figures released by the city state’s maritime regulator show.
This year has seen the Singapore Registry of Ships (SRS) cross 96mgt, thus maintaining its position in the top five ship registries in the world.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown us many challenges, but it also presented us with opportunities to emerge stronger,” said Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) chief executive Quah Ley Hoon.
“Singapore-registered ships have also continued to perform well under the various port state control (PSC) regimes.
“We ranked highly in both the Tokyo and Paris MOU white lists, and these are testaments to the quality and reliability of ships in the SRS.”
Quah, who was addressing the ship registry’s annual forum, also outlined how the SRS was looking to “work with shipowners” to fight the pandemic and shift gear towards the “new normal”.
She said these initiatives included “building resilience” to support our seafarers through the pandemic; strengthening partnerships to drive decarbonisation and digitalisation; and to keep the SRS “adaptable, agile and competitive in the new normal”.
Separately, Singapore also confirmed that it has completed over 50,000 crew changes since 27 March 2020 across 3,500 ships for crews of “all nationalities from ships of different flags”.
Quah said Singapore has been facilitating crew changes through what she described as a “safe corridor”, which she said “keeps our seafarers safe; and keeps our public safe”.
Depending on the Covid-19 situation, the MPA said it expects to conduct some 500 to 600 crew changes per day in the coming months.
“For Singapore-flagged ships, 99% of crew onboard are employed within their service contract period,” the maritime regulator said.
“MPA will continue to work closely with ship operators to repatriate the remaining 1% of crew who are still working onboard on extended contracts.”
The MPA said the Covid-19 pandemic has also helped to accelerate the adoption of technology within the shipping sector including remote inspections.
Since June this year, it said it has carried out 128 remote flag state and port state inspections involving 74 companies using this technology.
The MPA said it has also collaborated with classification societies to perform statutory certification and survey services for Singapore-flagged ships using remote technologies.
This is said to include the inspection of ship equipment via video streaming platforms, and verification of documents sent electronically.
In addition, the MPA said it has carried out close to 250 oral examinations for certificate of competency deck and engine candidates through video conferencing since April.
