Good Practices for Ship Vetting Workshop - 12 October 2011

workshop ship vetting

The purpose of this workshop was to explain the principles and good practices for ship vetting, as part of the risk assessment process. Existing industry ship inspection schemes such as CDI, SIRE and EBIS for deep-sea shipping and barging were presented.

Practical aspects of how to analyse a ship inspection report were introduced and the use of company templates was presented.

Representatives from chemical companies shared their experience with ship vetting and the use of ship inspection reports in risk assessment. Also the legal aspects of ship vetting were presented.

Who attended?

Business managers, logistics and shipping managers, procurement managers and maritime transport safety managers from chemical companies.

Background

Ships carrying chemicals can be involved in accidents which may result in the loss of human life, damage to the environment and infrastructure, clean up costs, fines and loss of image for the company. Therefore it is recommended that chemical companies carry out a risk assessment before chartering a ship or accepting the nomination of a ship to their terminal. Such a risk assessment should make use of all available sources of information, including ship inspection reports prepared under one of the existing industry inspection schemes (CDI, SIRE, EBIS, …).

If not available in-house, chemical companies can make use of vetting expertise from third parties for approving ships. To assist chemical companies in developing a ship vetting process, Cefic has issued Guidance on Good Practices for Ship Vetting.