The U.S. Coast Guard has granted the Liberian Registry and the Panama Ship Registry QUALSHIP 21 (QS21) status for 2023-2024.
To qualify for QS21, flag administrations must have a three-year Port State Control (PSC) detention ratio of less than 1.00 percent and be credited with 10-plus PSC exams per year for the last three years.
Admission to the QS21 program recognizes vessels and flag states which have successfully met specified safety and quality requirements and regulations when calling at ports in the U.S.
The 27-member QUALSHIP 21 program was established by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002 with the goal of ensuring “safe and environmentally friendly maritime commerce.”
To qualify for inclusion in the program, vessels must comply with the established requirements, which encourage those exemplary vessels that have been inclined towards compliance and good environmental management.
The QS21 program ended calendar year 2022 with an impressive 4,431 vessels enrolled.
In 2021, “we welcomed five additional flag administrations into the program with one losing their QS21 eligibility. For 2022, seven flag administrations lost their eligibility while four new flags became eligible,” said RADM Wayne R. Arguin, the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Prevention. “The USCG welcomes the flag administrations of Belgium, Panama, Portugal, and Vanuatu for becoming QS21 eligible this year.”
In 2022, the Coast Guard conducted 8,706 SOLAS safety exams with a total of 78 detentions.
The annual detention rate increased from 0.73 percent to 0.89 percent.
The three-year rolling average detention ratio decreased slightly from 0.87 percent to 0.80 percent.
The total number of ships detained in 2022 for environmental protection, safety, and security-related deficiencies increased from 63 to 78.
Flag Administration performance for 2022 dropped slightly with the overall annual detention rate increasing from 0.73 percent to 0.89 percent.
“Low detention rates are a testament to the professionalism, skill, and dedication of the mariners who sail and maintain these vessels, as well as the companies, administrations, and classification societies that provide the support and oversight to ensure an efficient and safe worldwide marine transportation system (MTS),” said Arguin.
To achieve this objective, a series of measures were implemented “to guarantee the reduction of possible detentions upon arrival of Panama- and Liberia-flagged vessels calling at U.S. ports.”
The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP)’s General Directorate of Merchant Marine works with several subsidiary agencies out of offices located in the U.S., Panama, and several other countries.
“Panama’s Maritime Administration encourages ship owners, operators, and captains to maintain the highest standards to ensure a safer as possible to innovative, and sustainable industry, always having as principal the protection of the human life at sea and the environment,” the AMP said.
Panama started its open registry in 1924 and, by the close of that year, the country had 14 ships of 83,776 aggregate tonnage on its books. Currently, about 8,600 ships of an aggregate 239.4 million gross tons fly the Panamanian flag.
Today’s second largest open registry, the Liberia Registry, was established in 1948 by a former U.S. Secretary of State.
At the end of 1948, the Liberian Registry had only two ships of 772 total tons. Today, there are 5,600-plus vessels aggregating over 242 million gross tons, representing 15 percent of the world’s ocean-going fleet.