New Measures for Ship Pollution Response Regime will effective

The Maritime Safety Administrationof the People’s Republic of China recently published new Measures of Administration on Agreement for Ship Pollution Response Regime, which will become effective on 01 March 2020.

By comparing the wording of the new Measures and the old one, it is realized that there is no material change to the requirements of concluding agreements with SPRO. However, from 1 March 2020, no SPRO Agreements will be needed for any of the following (Article 12 in the Measures):

1.     Any ship under 10,000 GT either in ballast or carrying a liquid cargo in bulk not listed in the Directory of Hazardous Bulk Liquid Cargo (Refer to attached documents which was released by MSA on May 30, 2019); or

2.     Any ship driven by clean fuels only and carrying no hazardous bulk liquid cargo; or

3.     Where the port which the ship is entering, leaving or operating from does not have a SPRO with the required level of response capability.

One of principles significantly changed in the new Measures is SPRO does not need to apply its qualification and get approval from MSA, but is obligated to disclose its capability to the public in the website of related industry association. It was noted a committee inside China Diving & Salvage Contractors Association (CDSA) had begun to play the roleof SPRO industry association, which recently released a Management Rules on Capability Assessment and Self-regulation of SPROs (Attached below). It was noted the assessment criteria on SPRO in the Rules were same as that stipulated in the Requirement for the Capacity of SPRO (JT/T 1081-2016).

Should you have any doubt about the new Measures, it is recommended to contact the P&I Clubs for advices. Before getting any updated IG recommended SPRO Agreement, CCS-TM will continue to help owners entering into SPRO agreements in IG approved wording with the relevant insurance and an accompanying response tariff if available.

Appendix:

-       Measures of Administration on Agreement for Ship Pollution Response Regime 

-       Directory of Hazardous Bulk Liquid Cargo

-       CDSA ManagementRules on Capability Assessment and Self-regulation of SPROs