A Thorco Projects-managed ship has been banned from Australia for failing three port state inspections this year.
The action against the 17,000-dwt Thorco Luna (built 2014) was taken by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) after the vessel "consistently" failed to meet international standards.
The chartered-in cargo vessel was released from its latest detention at Port Kembla on Friday. It was underway off Sydney on Monday.
It has been banned from Australian ports for three months.
AMSA inspected the ship five times between November 2017 and June 2018.
On three occasions, it was detained with a cumulative 34 deficiencies. It was held at Gladstone and Port Alma in January and February.
"The ship’s average deficiency rate is 6.8 deficiencies per inspection, which is nearly triple the industry average of 2.3," AMSA said.
The most serious deficiencies stemmed from the fact that officers and crew were unfamiliar with the operation of critical shipboard equipment and procedures for navigation and fire safety, it added.
In one case, the ship’s navigating officers had planned to transit a compulsory pilotage area without a pilot and were unfamiliar with the operation of the electronic navigation systems upon which they relied.
AMSA also had concerns with safe systems of work and the operation of critical shipboard equipment for fire-fighting, navigation and alarms.
The maritime authority's acting general manager of operations, Stephen Curry, said Thorco Luna’s operator had repeatedly failed to ensure the crew ran the ship safely and in line with international standards.
“This presents an unacceptable risk to the safety of the ship, its crew and the marine environment,” Curry said.
“Thorco Luna has been banned from entering an Australian port for a period of three months, which should give the operators time to reassess the management of their operations.”
Thorco told TradeWinds: "We are working closely together with the owners and technical managers to get to the root of the cause and to make sure that the vessels we charter comply with all applicable standards, rules and regulations."
AMSA has banned six ships in the past two years.
