Lloyd’s Register reports that new rules for shipowners and ship operators regarding machinery failure in Shanghai Port’s territory come into effect on 1 July 2022.
The Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration has issued a notice emphasising that shipowners, managers and operators are responsible for ensuring the sea worthiness of their ships and they must implement ship safety management systems and test a ship’s main and auxiliary machinery before calling at Shanghai Port.
If a machinery failure occurs, the ship’s master should take emergency measures to ensure safety and avoid accidents, report to vessel traffic services and follow instructions. A written report will also be required to be submitted.
Any machinery failure in Shanghai’s territorial waterway, incident causing risk of traffic safety or repair requiring more than two hours will require an onboard incident root cause investigation and safety inspection by the Port State Control.
Ships with two or more machinery failures in 12 months in Shanghai waters will be considered high-risk and subject to additional measures, which may include detention. They must also report on their precautionary actions to test machinery and include video of the test and a captain’s declaration. An additional tug for the voyage through the Yangtze River as another measure.
Lloyd’s Register highlights that it is more important than ever to implement effective safety management systems to maintain the ship’s machinery.
