Ships take many forms, however all are subject to the harsh operating conditions

of the marine environment, which can result in gradual deterioration in the

condition of a valuable asset. Likewise, the seaworthiness and safety of a
seagoing vessel may be compromised by unforeseen events such as adverse
weather, breakdown or negligence.

An independent condition survey, carried out periodically, not only reports to

owners, Charterers, Underwriters or Insurers the general condition of the ship,
but also gives an insight into the vessel's operating and procedural matters such
as crew training and safety awareness. Thus, potential problems may be
identified at an early stage, allowing remedial action to be taken prior to
development of a casualty.

The following classification societies are authorised by the MPA:

(i) American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)

(ii) Bureau Veritas (BV)
(iii) China Classification Society (CCS)
(iv) Det Norsk Veritas (DNV)
(v) Germanischer Lloyd (GL)
(vi) Korean Register of Shipping (KR)
(vii) Lloyd’s Register of Shipping (LRS)
(viii) Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NKK)
(ix) Registro Italiano Navale (RINA)

Role of the Classification society

By Hans G. PAYER - Past-IACS Chairman, Executive Board

Member Germanischer Lloyd,
September, 2000.

Introduction

Classification Societies have come under considerable pressure with every

more spectacular accident in recent years. This pressure has continuously
increased and most recently was dramatically demonstrated following the
ERIKA accident. Two aspects can be seen here: one is that IACS and the
member class societies have not yet been successful at eliminating sub-
standard ships from their registers. The other aspect is that tolerance for
accidents by the public has generally sharply decreased and everyone -
including politicians - is looking at class to improve the situation. Unfortunately
this expectation can far exceed the actual role and reach of classification
societies. It is a fact that class is only one link in the responsibility chain
regarding ship safety and reliability. Class co-operates with the owner, the flag
state and with port state regimes in looking after the safety conditions of ships.
The risk is high and problems arise when the owner tries to cut corners in
maintenance and to postpone repairs. Particularly during the past three or
four years IACS has closely looked at the situation, how to handle the evasive
owner and how to reduce risks particularly with older ships which require more
attention to maintenance. And IACS has made decisions which will make it
more difficult for sub-standard ships to be operated by their generally sub-
standard owners.
There is growing awareness today amongst many players, that the industry is
being plagued by a continuously growing number of regulations and by an
excessive number of inspections. This has become nearly unmanageable for
the crew as well as for the operators. It is widely agreed today that we have
reached a point where more regulations and inspections will not contribute to
further increases in safety at sea, but that a more efficient implementation of
rules and a better co-ordination of inspections will serve the purpose best.
This is an important task for IMO, and class and IACS will play a significant
role. The way to go is for class and IACS to convince the industry of the
quality and reliability of their work, and for the industry to agree to combine
the diverse inspections and vettings and concentrate them on class as far as
possible.

Sub-Standard Ships and the Role of Class

For the Singapore Quality Shipping Conference in Spring 2000 Michael Grey
stated: "Substandard shipping, like the common cold, is a universal complaint,
and may be encountered in any maritime region. It is difficult to eradicate, with
its symptoms found in a minority of ships, seafarers and operators. If there is
greater stress on quality shipping... then half the battle to eliminate
substandard elements of shipping is won."
As has been pointed out, Classification Societies have come under
considerable pressure with every spectacular accident in recent years, and
this has two aspects. One is that IACS and the member class societies have
not yet been successful in eliminating completely high risk sub-standard ships,
and the other aspect is that tolerance for accidents by the public has generally
sharply decreased. Everyone - including politicians - is looking at class to
improve the situation Unfortunately this expectation can far exceed the actual
role and reach of classification societies.
Are most sub-standard ships attended by non-IACS class societies? Available
PSC detention statistics seem to show that non-IACS societies probably have
a higher percentage of sub-standard ships in their class than IACS member
societies. With the increasing pressure on such ships within IACS this
percentage may further increase. But we have to remind ourselves that
altogether there are only about 5 to 8% of the world tonnage outside IACS. So
it makes a lot of difference if IACS is successful with their fight against sub-
standard ships or not. During the past three or four years IACS has closely
looked at how to handle the evasive owner and how to reduce risks
particularly with older ships. And IACS has made decisions which will impact
these substandard performers.
The enhanced surveys for older ships, the strengthening of the special
surveys by prescribing at least two class surveyors in order to see more, but
mainly to be able to better resist pressure from the owner's superintendent,
together with the tightened Transfer of Class Agreement within IACS will
make a lot of difference in this respect. Who is mainly to blame for
substandard shipping? The class or the sub-standard owner, the sub-
standard charterers and - the insurer? Class has limited possibilities for
policing. Class can refuse to issue or can withdraw a certificate. But class
attends the ships only on a set schedule, with class renewal after five years
and only limited inspections at the annual surveys. This schedule is based on
the assumption of normal maintenance and conscientious repair. The typical
sub-standard owner will however save on maintenance and repair. The ship
can deteriorate very quickly, within a period of months. And the risk of
something serious going wrong rises sharply.
And class has very limited possibilities to give economic incentives to
encourage quality shipping. This is where we need the co-operation with our
other partners, particularly the insurers.

Future Role of Class

Traditionally Class has been the representation that a ship complies at a

certain time with rules developed by the Classification Society. This
representation of conformity is given to the shipowner for his sole benefit
according to a private contract between him and the Classification Society. As
for all contracts, good faith is an essential feature. There are dramatic
changes in the shipping and shipbuilding industry, with resulting changes also
affecting the relation with classification societies. There is a tendency for ship
owners to concentrate their resources on the commercial side and to reduce
their technical competency, with the option to buy what is needed and to rely
more heavily on class. They may believe that the shipbuilding world is
standardised to such a degree that they need only very limited technical
understanding. But this is not yet so. A similar tendency can be found with
shipyards, particularly in the traditional shipbuilding countries. There are only
very limited resources available for development and optimisation. Ships are
often built following plans from consulting engineers.
Both, ship owner and building yard look at class to support them. They
increasingly rely on class. Do these developments result in lower safety
levels?
At the same time there are other fundamental changes to the shipping
industry. National companies merge and grow and become international -
global. National ties have lost their importance. The larger classes, the IACS
members have to follow and react to these trends.The transformations and
modifications are taking place at high speed and class has to adjust
accordingly. Both ship owner and shipyards make increasing use of 'out-
sourcing' . Here Classification societies take the opportunity to offer new
services to the owner or yard, outside the scope of class. This, however, must
not be confused with the impartial role that class must play.
There is no other body where professional know-how and experience
regarding shipping and the performance of ships is so thoroughly available
beside class and IACS. Most extensive material is compiled by classification
societies from surveys, from damage investigations as well as from research
and development projects. Class makes this available to the industry.
However since its approval activities give class an unparalleled access to data
on design, construction and even operation, great care is always taken to
avoid breaching any proprietary rights when disclosing information.
For the concept of quality shipping and improved shipping safety in the future,
industry has to create commercial incentives. It must be better for everyone
involved to operate well maintained ships at high standards instead of
minimising maintenance and neglecting repairs. How can this be done? We
have to work with carrot and stick. Positive incentives could be a good
reputation, leading to better charter contracts for instance. Perhaps we will
succeed at some point in the insurance companies dropping their traditional
binary approach of classed and non classed ships, to take into account the
different class notations which could show gradations from compliance with
minimum standards up to those which well exceed minimum standards.
Furthermore, the continuous improvement culture, the basis of the ISM Code,
together with an emphasis on training, and feedback from failures and
accident investigations, all make for more efficient and profitable operations.
These are matters where class can contribute. But we will also need strict
sanctions against undesirable conduct and attitude. This starts with a just but
strict port state control system, but could go all the way to fines and liability.
This will apply in the future to a limited extent also to class.
Will we continue to have individual rules and regulations from every class in
the future? Rules and Regulations presently still are close to the heart of
every society. But it is a fact that the rules of every society increasingly have
to be based on or have to correspond to international rules, such as from
IACS or IMO. There is a strong trend towards harmonisation. This will lead to
fewer possibilities for differentiation in this area in the future.
Through amendments and additions, by the combination of traditional
empirical rules with more analytical approaches, some of the class rules have
become complex and hard to understand. Rules following the new "first
principles approach" define loads and carrying capacity of materials on the
one side and prescribe analytical methods for assuring adequate reliability
and serviceability, strength, stiffness, vibration behaviour, noise etc. This is a
more flexible approach allowing for unconventional designs or structural
configurations.
With the introduction of new and much more detailed analysis methods in the
70ies, such as the finite element method, the evaluation of ships, new and in
service, has been moved from the largely empirical to a more rational
approach. This has made classification societies more bold, with structural
optimization of newbuildings - leading to minimum scantlings - but also
regarding the judgement on older ships. Whoever was more advanced with
these new methods, bragged about it. Competition developed on minimum
scantlings: 'Come to us and your ship will be lighter. However the owners did
not evaluate accurately the additional burden on hull maintenance the lighter
scantlings may entail. Today this has changed. Today we follow themotto
'come to us and your ship will be better'. And this is the right way. Today,
class societies base their corporate philosophy on high standards, it pays to
be strict, it is the best long term strategy to insist on high standards and not to
make compromises on quality.: "We are service oriented, therefore we have
to fulfil every wish of our customer, the ship owner", is a short-sighted and
short-lived path. Clearly, positive constructive co-operation with the owner
must not mean unconditional surrender to his wishes and demands. The class
surveyors today have to act conscientiously between advice and assurance in
a balanced way. This is not easy in every case. It requires extensive know-
how and experience and good basic judgement.

Consequences of the ERIKA accident

Tankers are essential to assure sufficient energy supply to all parts of the
world, in view of the present situation of the tanker market most significantly
the increased role of gas and the fact that the refineries have largely been
moved to the oil producing nations, the demand for crude carriers has not
risen with the world economic development. It has more or less stagnated in
the past decade and predictions do not foresee a significant growth in the
future. Tanker rates have consequently been depressed in the past years and
owners are tempted to minimise expenses even if this means reductions in
safety standards. Nevertheless tankers will continue to make up a good part
of the world tonnage and we have to do everything to ensure that they
operate safely. The ERIKA accident, though not yet conclusively investigated,
is a brutal reminder that we may not sit complacently and be satisfied with
what we have accomplished in the past. It is a fact that ship accidents have
decreased during the 90s and so has the average pollution by outflow of oil
into the oceans. This is the result of a positive co-operation of all partners
involved with ship safety. It is not an accomplishment of class alone, although
class and initiatives taken by IACS have been of central importance. Public
tolerance for accidents with pollution to the sea and coast on the other hand
has been lowered at least with the same rate if not more.
ERIKA was a single skin tanker built in 1975 in Japan. The vessel carrying
more than 30,000 tons of heated heavy fuel oil ran into a winter storm. It was
reported that the crew detected cracks forming in the deck and the ship
developed a significant list, but the master was refused shelter in one of the
French harbours. She altered course but the hull broke in two and the ship
sank, after the crew had been rescued by helicopter. About 20,000 tons of the
heavy fuel oil cargo have washed ashore and polluted a stretch of about 500
km of the Atlantic coast of France.
There are allegations that due to a lack of maintenance the structure of the
tanker had deteriorated to a degree that the required strength was no longer
available. An inquiry is on the way, but the extensive pollution by heavy fuel
oil, one of the worst petroleum products we have regarding pollution, forces
politicians to act quickly and drastically. IACS has kept up a meaningful
dialogue with the politicians and other industry partners. Most important was
however for IACS to critically review how class and the surveyors handle older
ships and whether present procedures are strong enough to weed out sub-
standard ships.
Despite the regret on proliferating new requirements expressed earlier, a
series of stringent new measures was introduced at an extraordinary IACS
council meeting held in Hamburg in February this year. These include an
extension of surveys for tankers above 15 years of age, such as annual
inspection of tanks with high risk of corrosion and reduction of the time
between extensive class renewal surveys from five to two and a half years. In
order to make it easier for the surveyors to stand up to possible pressure from
the ship operators against costly repairs, at least two surveyors will have to
attend the more extensive surveys in the future.
The transfer of class agreement is being strengthened to require that tankers
and bulk carriers which are 15 years of age and above can change class only
after the new class has performed a full extensive survey and found the ship
satisfactory.
Further decisions by IACS include a first step to monitor the performance and
safety record of flag states with the ultimate possibility for class to refuse to
work for a flag. Also the IACS early warning system, EWS, where information
on some systematic weakness of a ship design or a safety problem arising is
exchanged within IACS will be made more effective and address properly any
confidentiality issue.
Finally, in the event of a casualty, IACS will make available the expertise of
each member to the flag state concerned or other Investigation Boards.

Conclusion

Concluding, we can summarise that the role of Classification Societies is truly

changing. As the world around us is changing very rapidly it would be very
dangerous for class and for IACS not to respond. We are one partner in the
safety chain and we have to re-evaluate constantly how we can best perform
our task, which is to look after the quality of ships from new-building to
scrapping and assure that we minimise risk to man, material and the
environment at all times.

The main areas of IACS Members' activities are:

Ship Classification Services

Classification is vital for the structural and engineering design,

construction and operation of ships and affects shipbuilding,
maintenance and repair, shipbroking, chartering, marine insurance,
broking and banking

Based on considerable research and development to keep abreast of

advancing technology, and the results of feedback over many years from
thousands of ships in service, IACS Member Societies establish and
continually update standards and guidelines for the structural and engineering
design, construction and survey of ships and other marine structures, such as
mobile offshore units. This capability is a mandatory pre-requisite for an
organisation to provide statutory services on behalf of a flag administration.
The classification certificate is the document which confirms that a ship has
been designed and built in accordance with the society's rules and, in this
respect, is fit for its intended service. To maintain its class while in service, a
ship must be surveyed annually, with major surveys every five years. Surveys
become increasingly stringent as ships get older.
Failure to meet the relevant standards or non-compliance with
recommendations issued as a result of a classification survey may result in
the suspension or withdrawal of class -known as disclassing. It follows that
statutory certification issued on the basis of satisfactory classification will thus
be rendered invalid.
Statutory Services

Through their extensive resources of manpower, expertise and

technology, IACS Members have the capability to undertake surveys,
maintain records and conduct the technical reviews necessary to fulfil
the requirements of the various IMO international conventions and
codes.

Based also on the national standards imposed by individual flag states, IACS
Members undertake statutory work on behalf of individual IMO member
states. Well over 100 governments around the world delegate this authority to
IACS Members
The most common authorisations are in connection with the Load Line,
SOLAS, MARPOL and Tonnage Conventions. Contained in these
Conventions are mandatory Codes that address transportation of dangerous
goods such as the International Gas and Chemical Codes as well as that
addressing safe management practices (International Safety Management
Code).

Research and Development

Collectively, the IACS Members invest more in research and

development (R&D) into ship structural and engineering design and
other safety aspects than any other single maritime-related organisation.

With more than 100 R&D projects in progress at any one time, IACS Members
are continuously carrying out or sponsoring research into ship structures,
essential shipboard engineering systems, ship construction, maintenance,
operation, communications and navigation.
This continuous process of development, together with essential feedback
from service experience, results in a rolling update of classification rules to
meet new demands in sea transport and marine technology and to keep
classification at the forefront of technical standards.
Through IACS working groups, R&D research results are shared by IACS
Members and contribute to the work of IMO and the maritime industry.
Examples of R&D projects include:
 Three-dimensional and non-linear ship hydrodynamic
 Fatigue damage assessment procedure
 Advanced fracture mechanics
 Structural performance of bulk carriers
 Life assessment method
 Smart structure development
 Hull condition monitoring
 Sloshing in partly filled tanks
 Hull vibration and torsion analysis
 Maintenance-friendly VLCC designs
 Safe and efficient use of composite materials

Technical Advisory Services

IACS Members aim to provide services to benefit the industry, and a
variety of technical advisory services are available to shipowners and
operators.

Examples include:
 International conventions and national regulations
 Statutory surveys and certification
 Ship manoeuvring characteristics
 Hull and performance monitoring
 Contingency planning
 Ocean towage
 Mooring and anchoring