UAE Classification Society (Tasneef) has been authorised by the Government of Gabon to carry out surveys on the country’s behalf and issue statutory certificates on Gabon flagged ships.
 
The International Ship Registry of Gabon has signed a historic agreement with the UAE Classification Society (Tasneef) on February 12, to be its approved Recognised Organisation to carry out ship surveys and issue Statutory Certificates on Gabon Flagged ships.
 
This will help UAE’s Tasneef to help fast track ship survey and boost Gabon’s ship registry.
 
The agreement was signed by Engineer Saeed Saleem Al Maskari, chief executive officer of Tasneef and Hysham A Shaikh, commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Republic of Gabon, at the head offices of Tasneef in Abu Dhabi.
 
Each ship is required to undergo survey and classification before being registered by a particular country in order for it to become available for commercial use or chartering. A vessel cannot be commissioned for use without a proper registration by a particular country.
 
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) worldwide more than 96,000 ships with a combined capacity of 1.97 billion dead-weight tonnes (DWT) handle about 90 percent of the $19.48 trillion annual global trade. The rest of the goods are transported through land and air. Of these, 65,000 ships or 67.9 per cent of the global fleet are registered with the developing countries.
 
“We are very excited to assign UAE’s Tasneef to handle ship surveys and issue Statutory Certificates on behalf of the Republic of Gabon that will help boost the Gabon Flag,” Hysham A Shaikh, commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Republic of Gabon, said after signing the agreement.
 
“This is a very good news for all stakeholders and will help boost bilateral cooperation between the UAE and Gabon – an emerging economy,” he said.
 
In 2018, 90 per cent of global shipbuilding, in terms of tonnage, was located in China, Republic of Korea and Japan.
 
As of January 2019, the top five ship-owning economies combined accounted for 51 per cent of world fleet tonnage. Greece held a market share of 18 per cent, followed by Japan (11 per cent), China (11 per cent), Singapore (6 per cent), and Hong Kong (5 per cent).
 
Almost half of the world’s tonnage was owned by Asian companies. Owners from Europe accounted for 41 per cent and from Northern America for 6 per cent. Companies from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Oceania had shares of one per cent or less.
 
Many commercial ships are registered under a flag that does not match the nationality of the vessel owner. For example, at the beginning of 2019, one half of all ships owned by Japanese entities were registered in Panama; one fifth of the ships owned by Greek entities were registered in the Marshall Islands, and another fifth in Liberia.
 
Panama (333 million DWT), Marshall Islands (246 million DWT) and Liberia (243 million DWT) were the leading flags of registration. Hong Kong and Singapore followed in fourth and fifth place. Among these five, Marshall Islands have recorded the strongest increase in registrations in recent years.
 
Tasneef is a leading Non-IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) Classification Society in the Gulf Region and Gabon Flag is a rising ship registry with the Maritime Administration office based in UAE.
 
The signing ceremony was attended by Waleed Al Tamimi, general manager and Gulab Ramchandani, head of Classification & Statutory of Tasneef and Karan Kapoor, technical director and Ibrahim Shaikh, technical manager from Gabonese Maritime Administration, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service