The now 13 Members of IACS met in Council in Kyoto, Japan, 21-23 June, where the Council Chairman, ClassNK's Noboru Ueda, formally welcomed Croatian Register and Polish Register back to the Association.
Council concluded the first periodic verification of existing members with the membership criteria against the new qualitative criteria, which demonstrated continued compliance of all members.
In its role as a key technical advisor to IMO, Council reaffirmed that IACS will strongly support any decision taken by MEPC 62 next month on the means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by international shipping.
The progress of harmonized CSR was also analyzed by Council. The rule text's compliance with IMO GBS requirements will be completed and enough time will be given for the industry for its review before adoption by IACS.
As required by the European Union, this year the IACS Quality Systems Certification Scheme found the direct audits of Members by IACS's own experts replaced with audits by six separate Accredited Certification Bodies. Council discussed at length concerns arising from the change in the system. The Quality Committee was tasked to consider what additional measures may be needed to ensure that the previous robust and consistent approach to IACS Members' quality performance and continuous improvement is maintained. IACS Permanent Secretary Derek Hodgson commented that "The new audit system is still in its early days of implementation and Council looks forward to receiving full feedback at an open end-user workshop to be held in Beijing on 20 October."
Concluding the meeting, Chairman Ueda said that "On the core issue of confidence in the class system, IACS will step up its consulting of stakeholders to ensure that the scope of classification fully meets the needs of the maritime industry and is fit for the 21st Century."
Council elected Mr Pavel Shikhov of Russian Maritime Register as Chairman for the next 12 months.
Members thanked Mr Ueda for his services to the Association and welcomed Mr Shikhov. Responding to Mr Ueda's welcome, Mr Shikhov commented "IACS has a lot of things to do in the coming year. The issue of the first draft of harmonised CSR for industry review is just one example. IACS is fully committed to delivering the results for enhancing safety at sea and protection of marine environment".
Contact:
Derek Hodgson, Permanent Secretary
(London) 020 7976 0660