Cumulative Analysis of Port State Control Based on Paris MoU Inspections

e-mail: salpaslan@turkloydu.org The Port State Control (PSC) was established to control ships entering ports or coastal facilities under its jurisdiction, with inspections by PSC officers aiming to determine whether ships meet safety and pollution prevention requirements and comply with the standards prescribed under the relevant international conventions. Annual reports based on PSC’s inspection reports are published under each memorandum of understanding (MoU) regime. The detailed inspection reports within the scope of the PSC, that contain a variety of information about vessels, and the processing and sharing of such information with other regional MoUs are intended to reduce the number of non-conforming practices in the global maritime system. In addition, PSCs publish lists of black, gray and white (BGW) flags, with the classification depending on the number of ship deficiencies and detentions. The classification is an indication of the quality of national flags. When a ship is found to have deficiencies, the inspection Cumulative Analysis of Port State Control Based on Paris MoU Inspections


INTRODUCTION
The vast majority of the world trade transport is carried out by ships that have a major role in the maritime trade and call to ports of various countries around the world. The vessels should therefore be in a satisfactory condition to ensure safer transport. In this context, the Port State Control (PSC) ensures that ships comply with the international safety, security and marine pollution standards, and that the ships are in good condition (Cariou et al., 2008). At this point, the PSC inspects vessel condition to establish their compliance with the international rules. This control mechanism was put in place by international treaties and inspections are performed in keeping with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This work is licensed under doi: 10.7225/toms.v10.n01.019 takes longer, and when the deficiencies are serious, the vessel is detained. Detention periods mean financial losses for the operator and loss of reputation for the flag state. Hence, the lists of black, gray and white flags published by the regional regimes are important in terms of reflecting the reputation of different countries. For these purposes, in this study, the inspections and detentions under the Paris MoU in 2019 have been examined and analyzed by countries and regions. Countries are categorized by UN geographical regions. In particular, the goal of the study was to identify the flag countries of the most frequently inspected and detained ships in 2019, as well as to determine the strategic measures developed by the countries and establish their differences and similarities compared to inspections and detentions in 2018. In addition, the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 had a lockdown effect in the maritime domain and a profound effect on society, economy and health worldwide. The result of this study is the prediction of PSC efficiency in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of the pandemic on the order of countries in the flag lists.  The Paris MoU, signed by thirteen European countries in 1982, was the first regional PSC regime. Eight other regional PSCs, namely the Tokyo MOU, the Indian Ocean MOU, the Mediterranean MOU, the Acuerdo de Viña del Mar, the Caribbean MOU, the Abuja MOU, the Black Sea MOU, and the Riyadh MOU have subsequently been signed, and the US Coast Guard for the United States region is being developed. These regional MoUs apply international rules and form a second line of defense against non-standard shipping (Perepelkin et al., 2010). Each PSC audit generates an inspection report containing detailed information about deficiencies, including information like the ship's flag, IMO ship number, ship type, construction year and inspection date (Cariou et al., 2008). These individual reports are then compiled into annual reports and published by each MoU regime. In this direction, the regional MoUs want to ensure that non-compliant ships do not trade anywhere in the world by cooperating and exchanging inspection data (Mansell, 2009).
The original objective of the Paris MoU was to inspect 25% of all foreign merchant ships which enter the ports in its territory, to identify the level of risk. The original inspection regime has since been replaced by a New Inspection Regime (NIR) adopted in 2009 and incorporated into the Paris MoU in 2011. Under NIR, the PSC Committee aims to inspect 100% of the foreign ships entering its ports. In this new system, the term Ship Risk Profile is used instead of Ship Target Factor. Ship Risk Profile is ship categorization by various risk groups, such as low risk ships or high risk ships, providing that vessels not belonging to any of these groups are considered standard risk ships (Rodríguez & Piniella, 2012). After the inspection, ships classified as high risk ships are required to be subjected to compulsory expanded inspections every 6 months whenever they enter a Paris MoU port (Yang et al., 2020). In addition, the Paris MoU publishes its Black, Grey, White (BGW) list in its annual report each year. The BGW list shows the full spectrum, from quality flags to poorly performing flags that are considered high or very high risk. The list is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a 3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections conducted in the period (Paris MoU, 2020b) .
According to the Paris MoU Annual Report (2019) COVID-19 likely also had an effect on the decreasing numbers of inspections and their results. After the outbreak of COVID-19, the Paris MoU recognized its effect on the international maritime industry. In view of the fact that the COVID-19 is still around and ships continue to experience operational challenges, the Paris MoU adopted temporary guidelines. During the pandemic, surveys, services, and audits are difficult to organize, shipyards close down temporarily. Seafarers have difficulties with certificate extensions, while port restrictions complicate joining ships and repatriation. To prevent these difficulties and ensure the continuity of the global supply chain, the Paris MoU granted an appropriate and proportionate grace period for certificate extensions to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19. In addition, the Paris MoU also took into consideration ILO's information notice on maritime labor issues and COVID-19 in this period (Paris MoU, 2020a).
To this end, cumulative analysis by country conducted in this study was based on the ratio of the number of inspections and detentions under the Paris MoU. In this context, inspection and detention figures recorded for each country are analyzed individually. In addition, countries have each been assigned to their respective geographical regions, as determined by the United Nations, such as Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Cumulative analysis is also presented by geographical regions. In this context, the number of inspections, deficiencies and detentions of ships that were the subjects of 17.912 inspections conducted under the Paris MoU in 2019, by their flag countries have been obtained from the THETIS database of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) (EMSA THETIS). The goal of this study is to predict ship condition and compliance with the international regulations by country in 2019, as well as to create a regional map of these issues. In this context, the study tried to determine the effect of the COVID-19 on ship quality by country.

LITERATURE OVERVIEW
There are several studies dealing with PSC improvement. Based on statistical analysis, Knapp and Frances have used econometric analysis to identify the differences between multiple PSC regimes (Knapp & Franses, 2007a, 2007b. Their 2007 suggestion to adjust inspection frequency to the ships' risk profile was adopted by the Paris MoU and resulted in the establishment of NIR in 2011 (Bijwaard & Knapp, 2009;Knapp & Franses, 2010;Knapp & van de Velden, 2009). On the other hand, Knapp and Franses (2008) measured the effect of inspections on decreasing the probability of casualty. For that purpose, they used PSC inspection data, casualty data and industry inspections data. They performed a binary logistic regression to determine the correlation between some variables such as ship age, type, flag and casualty. In addition, they also created a time series based on inspection and casualty data. They found that ship type, age and tonnage affected the gravity of the casualty. Detention does not have a significant effect on the probability of casualty. According to descriptive statistics, South and North China Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, the West African Coast and the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea are high risk areas for casualties. Contrary to expectations, the strongest effect of port state control inspection on the probability of casualty was identified in the South American Region, the Indian Ocean Region and in Australia, and not in the European or North American region. Li and Zheng (2008) have researched the effectiveness of the PSC and proposed the methods for the selection of vessels for inspection by the regional PSC. Bang and Jang (2012) have examined whether the regional PSC MOUs are effective in addressing the problem of substandard ships by looking at their membership, legal authority, financial capacity, structure, substantive scope, and action plans and policies. They have presented the genesis of each MoU. According to results, the Paris and Tokyo MOUs are the most successful regional MOUs, that have high numbers of economically strong states, cover densely traveled vessel areas, have experienced vessel pollution disasters, and have self-initiated regional PSC MOUs. Li et al (2014) have explored the safety index. They found that certain variables, such as vessel age, size, type, classification society and navigation zone are the key parameters for a vessel's safety index. They have arrived at the conclusion that vessel registers are a particularly important factor for vessel safety index. Vessels registered in Japan, China, the Netherlands, India, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Taiwan China, Sweden, Morocco, Belgium, South Africa and Ireland have higher safety levels, while on the other hand, safety levels of vessels registered in Panama, the United States, Russia, Norway, Malta, Greece, Italy, Bahamas, Spain, Turkey, Honduras and Canada are lower.
Though there general analyses of the influence of the professional profile of PSC inspectors and the results of inspections can be found in available literature, (Knapp & Franses, 2007a;Ravira & Piniella, 2016), Wu et al (2014) have given some suggestions for the effective evaluation of fire drills in response to the PSC's new inspections regime. They have analyzed PSC inspections from specific aspects. Ravira and Piniella (Ravira & Piniella, 2016) have studied the effect of the professional background of PSC officers on inspection results by conducting a case study of the Spanish Maritime Administration. They have found that the professional background of PSC officers, as well as the absence of an inspection application procedure have a significant effect on inspection outcome.
A number of studies have covered the issue of flag performance under different MoUs (Bolat, 2019;Chen et al., 2017;Corres & Pallis, 2008). Bolat (2019) investigated how ships sailing under Turkish flag fared in inspections conducted under the Tokyo MoU, that includes port states in the Asia-Pacific region, identified their deficiencies, and proposed measures that could be taken by the Republic of Turkey, as their flag state, to remedy the issue. Other authors have stated that the performance of the flag state has direct implications for the targeting factor of a vessel, i.e. for the probability that a ship will be singled out as a candidate for priority PSC inspections. Poorly performing flags are subject to a greater number of PSC inspections, whereas well performing ones are subject to a less stringent inspection regime (Corres & Pallis, 2008).
Several studies have looked into the effect of COVID-19 on the maritime sector (Akyurek & Bolat, 2020;Chen et al., 2017;Doumbia-Henry, 2020;Fuwape et al., 2021;Rodríguez & Piniella, 2012;Wu et al., 2014). However, Akyurek and Bolat (2020) have addressed the PSC issue directly in connection with the Covid-19 outbreak. They conducted a comparative analysis of the total number of inspections performed in 2015-2020 to establish the effect of the pandemic on ship inspection numbers. They then conducted an Entropy-based Grey Relational Analysis, using inspection results to assess variations in PSC results attributable to the COVID-19. The results suggest, that in spite of the dramatically decrease in the number of Paris MoU inspections, the PSC is still effective with respect to the detention rate of the ships inspected. However, the Grey Analysis has found a change in PSC Officers' shortcomings and detention orders.
Compared with existing research, this paper has two distinctive features. The first is having the performance of all countries worldwide examined within the scope of the Paris MoU by comparing the number of deficiencies and detentions relative to the number of inspections in terms of COVİD-19. The second is the presentation of the performance map of regions, as determined by the United Nations, under the Paris MoU.

METHOD
In this paper, the descriptive statistical method was used to determine the quality of countries in terms of compliance with international maritime rules. Its objective is to view each country in isolation in terms of Paris MoU inspections and their results and create a map of regions as defined by the United Nations. The United Nations divide the world into geographical regions such as Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania (United Nations, 2019). Cumulative analysis and the ratio of the number of vessel inspections and detentions by the Paris MoU by country and by region are examined.
Descriptive results have been obtained from the observation values obtained from the THETIS database (EMSA THETIS). The data relate to 2019 Paris MoU inspections and their results for countries from around the world. A total of 17,908 inspections were conducted, 9,320 inspections found deficiencies, 526 vessels were detained and 27 banned from the Paris MoU ports in 2019. 41 flag countries were placed on the white list, 16 on the grey list, and 13 on the black list in 2019. The objective was to present Paris MoU inspections of ships from around the world and the results of such inspections for each country separately, and forge regional identities. In addition, a closer look at inspection distribution and results for each country included in the BGW flag list might reveal the reasons for delegating particular countries to a specific list.
XLSTAT and Excel software programs were used to arrive at a better understanding of the distribution of Paris MoU inspections and their results for each country (XLSTAT). For this purpose, a huge number of data were summarized, organized and classified depending on the number of inspections conducted by the Paris MoU, the number of detentions and inspection day, for each flag. The countries are categorized by geographical regions as used by the United Nations. Using the information obtained, a statistical improvement in classification was achieved.  Figure 1 clearly shows that countries with the greatest number of detained vessels are Panama, Liberia, Malta, and the Marshall Islands. However, they can not be said to have a high detention ratio, since the number of inspections is also a critical factor for determining the detention/inspection ratio. Table 2 shows the inspection/detention ratio of countries with the highest number of detentions, while Table 3 shows the countries with the highest detention/inspection ratio. According to these tables, Panama has the highest number of inspections (2026), the highest number of detentions (92), and a medium detention/inspection ratio (0.0454). On the other hand, Nigeria and Samoa have the minimum number of inspections (1), the minimum number of detentions (1), and the highest detention/ inspection ratios (1). In the tables, countries are ordered depending on their detention/inspection ratio.  In Figure 2, the number of vessel detentions for countries having the highest detention numbers was inspected daily and recorded cumulatively. The x-axis of the figure represents the number of days vessels of a particular country have been inspected. For instance, Malta flag vessels were inspected between 150 and 200 out of 365 days.    Table 4 shows that Liberia does not have the highest detention/ inspection ratio as it has the highest number of inspections. The Sub-Saharan Africa regions with the highest detention/inspection ratios. Table 4 shows that only one vessel sailing under the Nigerian flag was inspected by the Paris MoU and that the vessel was detained. Nigeria, Cameron and the Comoros have the highest detention/inspection ratio in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although Nigeria has the highest detention/inspection ratio, only one inspection of its ships was conducted. The Liberian flag has the highest number of inspections and detentions. The results for this region are one-hundred-and-three detentions out of one-thousand-ninety-two inspections conducted by the Paris MoU. The overall ratio for this region is 0.05. Mauritius, Ethiopia and Cabo Verde flags have no detention record.                  Table 9.

Northern Africa
Eastern Asia regions with the highest detention/inspection ratios.  According to Table 10, the Bangladesh flag has the highest detention/inspection ratio. Since India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have no detention record, their detention/inspection ratio is zero. Iran has the lowest detention/inspection ratio among flags that have detentions.

Southern Asia
Trans. marit. sci. 2021; 01: xx-xx    According to Figure 13, vessels flying the Cyprus flag were inspected almost every day, with detentions spread throughout the year. Other flags, with the exception of the Turkish flag, were not subjected to as many inspections in 2019. The number of detentions of ships sailing under the Turkish flag increased between day 280 and day 360. As Qatar and Lebanon had only 2 detentions, our logarithmic cumulative detention graph could not show the part of the year when their detention numbers increased.

Western Asia
The detentions/inspections ratios in Table 11 show that Qatar flag took the lead with the highest ratio of 0.25. Though the Lebanon flag has the highest number of detentions, it has the second highest detentions/inspections ratio. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait, Georgia and Jordan flags had inspections and are listed in a descending order, from countries with the highest number of inspections with zero detentions to countries with the lowest number of inspections with zero detentions. Turkey has the highest performing flag among Western Asian flags with detentions.     Table 12 shows that Moldova has the highest detention/ inspection ratio. In spite of the Russian Federation's flag being subjected to the highest number of inspections, it has the best detention ratio among flags that have had their vessels detained. The Romanian flag was subjected to only one inspection in 2019.      Looking at the cumulative distribution in Figure 19  According to Table 14, the Albanian detention/inspection ratio far outstrips that of other flags. Approximately every fifth inspection resulted in detention. Although ships with the Maltese flag were frequently inspected, this is a high performing flag, with an excellent detention/inspection ratio. Maltese, Italian, Greek and Spanish flags had the same detention/inspection ratio.   According to Table 15, the highest detention/inspection ratio is 0.23 and belongs to Switzerland. In spite of having the highest number of inspections, the Dutch flag has the lowest detention/inspection ratio. Although German flag has the second highest number of inspections, its detention ratio is not as high.   According to Table 16, Vanuatu flag vessels were inspected 89 times and 8 of them have been detained. Although it was the only flag inspected, almost 1in 10 of its ships were detained. According to Table 17, although Marshall Islands flag has the highest number of inspections and detentions compared to other flags, it does not have the highest detention ratio. Despite the Palau flag having less detention than other flags, its ratio is high due to fewer inspections. The Nauru flag had only one inspection at Paris MoU ports.
Micronesia regions with the highest detention/inspection ratios.   Looking at the cumulative distribution in Figure 26, Cook Islands flag detentions have been spread throughout the year but are higher between day170 and day 360. The other flags were not accounted for in the cumulative assessment due to having the number of detentions of 1 or less.  According to Table 18, the highest detention/inspection ratio is 1 and belongs to Samoa. Though the Cook Islands flag had the highest number of inspections and it had the lowest detention/inspection ratio among countries with detentions. There is no clear conclusion for Niue and Samoa since they only had two or fewer inspections.

DISCUSSION
In this study, cumulative analysis by country was conducted relying on the detention/inspection ratios under the Paris MoU. In this context, the number of inspections and detentions was analyzed for each country individually. In addition, the countries were categorized into geographical regions, as defined by the United Nations.
Comparing the Paris MoU inspections and their results, 17,909 and 17,952 inspections were performed in 2019 and 2018, respectively. There are clearly no huge differences in the numbers of inspections conducted in these two years. At this point, Covid-19 can be said not to have disrupted the inspection of ships arriving at the ports under the jurisdiction of the Paris MoU in 2019. However, although the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was in 2019, its effects have been more palpable in 2020 all over the world. At this point, Akyurek and Bolat (2020) stated that although the number of inspections decreased dramatically when COVID-19 hit the European Union, statistics relating to the detention/inspection ratio also indicate that the PSC still works efficiently. 9,320 and 9,368 inspections found deficiencies, there were 529 and 566 detentions, 25 and 24 banns were proclaimed in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Inspections conducted in accordance with the Paris MoU clearly found more deficiencies and more vessels were detained in 2018 than in 2019. However, Paris MoU inspections were denied access more frequently in 2019.
According to results by countries, Panama, Liberia, Malta, and the Marshall Islands had the highest number of inspections in 2019 and 2018. This result can be explained by the fact that these countries also have the largest fleets in the world (UNCTAD, 2020). Panama, Malta and Liberia had the highest number of deficiencies in 2018, while Panama, Liberia and Malta had the highest number of deficiencies in 2019.
The analysis of detention/inspection ratios in Table 19 shows that Samoa had the highest percentage of detentions, which had one inspection and one detention in 2019. On the other hand, Cameroon, Qatar, Switzerland, and Albania, with more than one inspection, had detention rates of 27.4 %, 25 %, 22.7%, and 21.4 % respectively in 2019. In 2018, Honduras and Indonesia had the highest detention/inspection ratio of 33.3 %, followed by Jordan and Samoa with 25 %. Finally, Tuvalu had the detention/inspection ratio of 20 % in 2018.
According to statistics (Paris MoU, 2018, 2019), while the Isle of Man, the Bahamas, and Singapore (in that order) had the highest rankings in the Paris MoU white list in 2018, the United Table 19.

Summary of detention/inspection figures by regions.
Kingdom, Norway, and the Bahamas ranked highest on the Paris MoU white list in 2019. The Isle of Man and Singapore fell to sixteenth and seventh position, respectively, in 2019. The United Kingdom improved its ranking from fifth to first place in 2019. Saudi Arabia and the United States took up the first two places on the grey list in 2018, with Morocco and Saudi Arabia doing the same in 2019. Morocco improved its position from tenth to first place in 2019. The United States moved up from the grey list and made it to the fortieth place on the white list in 2019. As for the black list, Cook Islands and Belize took the first two places in 2018, and Tunisia and Cook Islands in 2019. These country ranking changes on BGW lists affect regional maps of ship quality.
The map of regions based on detention numbers under the Paris MoU, as seen in

CONCLUSION
This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the performances of countries under the Paris MoU. The countries were categorized into geographical regions, as defined by the United Nations. An additional objective was to better understand the effect of Covid-19 on the performances of the Paris MoU inspections and flag states subjected to the Paris MoU inspections.
Inspection, deficiency and detention numbers, and their cumulative graphs allowed countries to be analyzed in terms of the quality of the ships carrying their flags. In this paper, we used the data for 2019. The Concentrated Inspection Campaign was conducted from 1 September 2019 to 30 November 2019, i.e. "roughly from day 250 to day 300" for emergency systems and procedures by the Paris MoU. At this point, this can be said to be a period of intensive inspection.
The statistics of the Paris MOU clearly prove that the number of inspections dramatically decreased when COVID-19 hit the European Union. The statistics pertaining to the detention/inspection ratio also indicate that the PSC still works efficiently. The PSC inspection and the 'new inspection regime' for the Paris MOU have been found to operate efficiently in the conditions imposed by the pandemic. NIR's main objective is to reward quality shipping and intensify the control and sanctions imposed on poorly performing ships. This development brings the Paris MoU in line with the global maritime developments, the introduction of new IMO instruments and a better-balanced method of ship targeting and inspection. However, deficiency and detention profiles have changed owing to Covid-19, which affected detention/inspection numbers by regions.
Although there are nine Memorandums of Understanding and the United States Coast Guard, tasked with the inspection of ships sailing under foreign flags, this paper only provides information for the Paris MoU. As a result, the Paris MoU is an initiator among other institutions in terms of keeping the results of inspection reports in statistical form. Therefore, the anticipated long-term effect of the Covid-19 pandemic are increasing numbers of substandard ships worldwide. A comparison of ship inspection and detention numbers with those recorded by other MOUs in subsequent studies can give us a broader perspective of the actual effects of COVID-19 on maritime shipping.