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INDUSTRY - CYPRUS REPORT
Flag is now part of
the Establishment
Indeed, the register has gone
through a radical
transformation since the
days when a ship flying the
Cyprus flag was jumped upon
almost immediately by port state
control inspectors.
By agreeing to join the EU, the
Cyprus registry had to get its act
together in no small way. This
has been duly achieved,
culminating in the flag being
taken off the 'Black List' and
'Grey List' and finally being
promoted to the Paris and Tokyo
MOU's 'White List' of virtually
blue chip flag regimes last year.
It is now a fully paid up
member of the Paris MOU and
has been publicly acknowledged
by the seafarer organisation ITF
as having put its house in order.
Another plus point was that the
register became only the second
flag state to submit to the
voluntary IMO audit, following
Denmark.
"It was an extremely useful
exercise", Captain Andreas
Constantinou, Cyprus Ships'
senior surveyor told
TANKEROperator. He explained
that the audit was carried out by
high ranking officials of IMO
member states’ Japan, US and
Denmark maritime
administrations, while the
European Maritime Safety Agency
(EMSA) acted as an observer.
He explained that at first you
must prepare yourself for such an
audit. "If things are not in order,
then you have to put them in order
and iron out the discrepancies and
take in the observations and
recommendations for
improvement", he explained.
Painful experience
The revolution has come at a
cost, as several owners and
There has been considerable upheaval
in the Cyprus flag since the country
entered the EU on 1st May 2004.
managers and their vessels were
either thrown out or opted to
leave for a less stringent regime.
For example, single hull tankers
were no longer acceptable under
EU membership, which hit a few
people hard. As a result of the
accession to the EU, the registry
had to upgrade and expand its
human resources to cope with the
raft of new legislation that came
with it. Constantinou said that for
Cyprus being an island rich in
shipping expertise, this was not a
problem. For example, as part of
the enhancements needed for
becoming an EU member, the
number of in-house surveyors
was increased from 49 to 60 and
the number of inspectors was
increased to 62 from 43. There
were also increases in the
numbers of officers and
clerks/assistants.
Another major problem facing
Cyprus shipping in general,
including the registry, is the
Turkish embargo on any Cypriot
flag or controlled vessel calling at
any Turkish port. The one
exception is transiting the
Bosporus, which is still an
international waterway as laid
down by the Montreux Treaty of
1936. The boycott has finally
been called illegal by the EU,
which has led to sanctions, which
were finally endorsed on 15th
December last year.
Tonnage stabilised
At the time of joining, the registry
had lost almost 10 mill gt of ships.
However, the situation has now
stabilised and as at 31st December
last year, the register had 1,845
vessels of 22 mill gt, compared
with 2,031 ships of 24.2 mill gt on
31st December 2003.
The 2006 figure includes 113 oil
tankers of 3.533 mill gt, 12
chemical tankers of 193,700 gt,
four liquefied gas carriers of 14,000
gt and five obos of 136,000 gt.
In world terms, the current
tonnage entered puts Cyprus in
10th place in the world's fleet.
Unlike other flag states, such as
Liberia, Panama and the Marshall
Islands, Cyprus does not have a
marketing department or arm. It
now operates as virtually a notfor-profit
organisation, a situation
it can afford given the other
maritime interests on the island,
which tend to pull together as a
maritime cluster.
At present, maritime related
activities account for about 4% of
Cyprus' GDP, the majority of
which comes from the huge
shipmanagement concerns that are
spread across Limassol and
beyond. The registry itself brings
in around Cyp£6 mill per year out
of the maritime industry's Cyp£650
mill per year. Cyprus is due to join
the Euro on 1st January next year.
Constantinou described the flag
state's revenue as roughly being
equal to its expenditure.
He said Cyprus was the only
Prisco Singapore's aframax Sakhalin Island is one of the new breed of vessels flying the Cyprus flag.
state where shipping had gone
from virtually zero in an 'open
register' to create a whole new
industry. For example, the
registry had just two ships
totalling 96 gt in 1963, but
reached a peak of 2,799 vessels
in 1997 in terms of numbers
and 28.37 mill gt in 2000 in
tonnage terms.
TO
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TANKEROperator • March 2007