Marshall Islands Registry Celebrates 200th Registered Vessel by Korean Owners

Marshall Islands Registry Celebrates 200th Registered Vessel by Korean Owners

6
Marshall Islands Registry Celebrates 200th Registered Vessel by Korean Owners

International Registries, Inc. and its affiliates (IRI), provide administrative and technical support to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Maritime and Corporate Registries. Since the opening of IRI’s office in Seoul in 2007, 201 vessels owned/operated by Korean interests have been registered in the RMI. As of the end of October 2014, the RMI fleet stood at just over 112 million gross tons and 3,300 vessels. Korean owners follow Greece, the United States and Norway, in that order, as the fourth largest shipowning group in the Registry.

“The growth in the number of Korean-owned vessels joining the RMI fleet has been remarkable particularly if you consider the general downturn in the shipping sector during the last few years,” said Bill Gallagher, President of IRI. “We are grateful to our Korean owners for their continued support and look forward to strengthening our relationship with them in the years ahead,” he continued.

The RMI Registry works closely with all of its owners and operators and strives to promote the quality of vessels registered. The RMI is the only major open registry to be included on the White Lists of both the Paris and Tokyo Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and to hold Qualship 21 status with the United States Coast Guard for an unprecedented ten consecutive years.

“Personnel, located in 26 worldwide offices, coupled with the Registry’s robust vetting process for ships entering and remaining in the RMI enables the Registry to ensure that quality owners and operators make up the overall fleet of the RMI Registry,” said Annie Ng, Head of Asia for IRI.

“More than 70% of the Korean owned vessels in the RMI Registry joined the fleet as newbuilding tonnage,” said Captain Young-min Kim, IRI’s Representative based in Seoul. “The RMI has an average fleet age of just over 9 years old and 25% of the fleet overall is coming out of yards in Korea,” stated Capt. Kim. “The RMI’s local presence in the Korean market has not only benefited the local shipowning community but has also provided a local point of contact for registrations coming straight out of the Korean yards,” he continued.

“The Korean Register of Shipping (KR) hosted the Registry’s semi-annual CSCC meeting in April of this year,” said Capt. Kim. “KR also arranged for a tour of the DMSE shipyard and provided members of the RMI delegation the opportunity to meet all KR department heads and build a stronger rapport for future communication,” he continued.

“The RMI Registry was relatively unknown in the Korean market until Capt. Kim joined us in March 2007 and developed the market from 5 Korean owned vessels in the Registry in 2007 to having registered 200 vessels in the RMI through 2014,” said Annie Ng. “The RMI Registry is committed to our owners, operators and other industry stakeholders in Korea; we have a solid plan to expand the size of the office and increase the number of personnel to meet the growing demand of the local shipping community so that efficient and user friendly service will continue,” concluded Ms. Ng.

Ακολουθήστε τα Ναυτικά Χρονικά στο Google News και μάθετε πρώτοι όλες τις ειδήσεις από την ελληνική Nαυτιλία, τις Μεταφορές και το Διεθνές Εμπόριο.