Denmark stays at the top of the Paris MoU's White List

The Paris MoU on 1 July 2023 published its 2022 Annual Report, which can be found on the website parismou.org.

This report provides an overview of the activities and statistics of the Paris MoU in 2022.

Denmark is again at the top

Regarding the “White, Grey, and Black List” for 2022, a total of 66 flags are listed: 39 on the “White List”, 18 on the “Grey List” and 9 on the “Black List”.

The "White List" as the most successful flag State in the period 2020 - 2022 is led by Denmark, which conducted 1121 inspections and had only 9 detentions and is in first place with an excess factor of -1.87.

Followed by Italy, Greece, the Netherlands... and at the bottom of the Black List is Cameroon.

Danish ships once again occupy the top position on the "White List", the Danish Maritime Authority informed.

Also within Tokyo MoU's port state control regime (covering Asia), Danish ships are again on the white list. Denmark is also placed on the US Coast Guard's Qualship 21 list, which covers port state controls in the USA.

Martin John, director of Ship Survey and Certification at the Danish Maritime Authority said:

"It is gratifying that Danish ships year after year maintain a position at the top of the whitelists. It confirms that the Danish flag is characterized by the highest standards for safety, health, environment and working conditions."

All the data is shown in the tables below:

In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore giving the most relevant comparison, the total number of flag States on the list was 70, of which 41 were on the “White List”, 16 on the “Grey List” and 13 on the “Black List”.

The comparison with 2019 shows a shift of some flag States from the White to the Grey list. The number of flag States on the “Black List” decreased by four.

The five most frequently recorded deficiencies in 2022 were “ISM” (4.8%, 2,248), “fire doors/openings in fire-resisting divisions” (2,9%, 1,373), “Seafarers’ Employment Agreement” (1.6%, 765), “cleanliness of engine room” (1.5%, 707) and “auxiliary engine” (1.3%, 600).

40 years

2022 was the year the Paris MoU celebrated its 40th anniversary.

In those 40 years, the harmonization between an increasing number of maritime member authorities has laid a solid foundation for the effective reduction of substandard shipping in the Paris MoU region.

The Annual Report commemorates this as well as focusing mainly on the inspection results from 2022.

Back to normal level

In the course of 2022, the number of inspections carried out by the Paris MoU has returned to its normal level, after having to accept a lower number for two years.

COVID-19 no longer imposes restrictions on inspection efforts.

However, the information from the inspection results of 2022 was difficult to compare with that of the previous two years because of the different circumstances with a different number of inspections and deficiencies as a result.

In some cases, it has therefore been decided to use the pre-COVID year 2019 as the reference year instead of 2021.

The number of inspections carried out in 2022 was 17,289. Comparable to the number of inspections in 2019: 17,916.

The detention rate has risen

The detention percentage has risen to 4.18% (2.98% in 2019; 3.49% in 2021). While a direct link to COVID-19 cannot be easily established, it is concerning that the 2022 detention rate is the highest in 10 years.

This has increased the importance of Port State Control as a line of defense, where others – in particular shipowners, flag States and Recognized Organizations – fail to take responsibility sufficiently.

In 2022, ten Refusal of Access Orders (bans) were issued. This is a significant decrease compared to the 25 bans issued in 2019. In the past three years, 21 ships have been banned for multiple detentions, and eight ships were banned for “failing to call at an indicated repair yard”.

In the same period, four ships were banned for a second time. Over a three-year period, the flags of Comoros and the Republic of Moldova have recorded the highest number of bans.

DOWNLOAD: Annual Report 2022 Paris MoU