【Panama Circular】 Panamanian-Flagged Vessels: Ensuring Thorough PSC Measures Before Calling at Italian Ports

When a Panamanian-flagged vessel is calling at a port under the Paris MOU jurisdiction, it is required by Merchant Marine Circular MMC-398 to submit a checklist to the Panama Maritime Authority at least 96 hours prior to arrival as a precautionary measure against PSC.
【Panama Circular】PARIS MOU Pre-ports arrival checklist for Panama flagged vessels.

Recently, the Panama Maritime Authority has issued MMC-402, titled ‘Italy Pre-ports arrival checklist for Panama-flagged vessels.

https://www.panamashipregistry.com/document/italy-pre-ports-arrival-checklist-for-panama-flagged-vessels/

According to the circular, Panamanian-flagged vessels are required to complete and submit the checklist attached to the circular to the Panama Maritime Authority at least 96 hours before arriving at an Italian port.

The specific requirements are as follows:

• The checklist must be sent ninety-six hours (96hrs) before the vessel arrives to Italy ports, to the following email address: [e-mail]. For voyages with lasts less than 96 hours (96hrs), the checklist must be sent at least twenty-four hours (24hrs) before arrival at port.
• The use of this checklist is compulsory for all the Panamanian vessels prior to arrivals Italy ports, and shall be signed by the vessel Masters and/or company Designated Persons Ashore (DPA).
• The omission of this requirement may lead to administrative sanctions for to the vessel Master, and/or Chief Engineer and/or to the vessel company as well.
• If an extraordinariness issues, such as equipment failures or any others situations that cannot be resolve on board of the vessel immediately; Ship-Owners, operators, technical managers, DPA or vessel´s Master, shall immediately coordinate the effective corrective actions, together with the vessel Recognized Organization (R.O,) and Segumar Offices. At the same time, PSC Authority shall be informed as requested by regulation 11 “Maintenance of conditions after survey”, SOLAS Chapter I.

The requirements of MMC-402 overlap with those of MMC-398 (checklist submission before calling at a Paris MOU jurisdiction port), and upon confirmation with Segumar, the following response was received:

“MMC-398 is still valid. However, use the checklist attached to MMC-402 (the link to the checklist in MMC-398 has been deactivated). The issuance of MMC-402 is a precautionary measure by the Panama Maritime Authority due to the high number of detentions in Italy.”

In other words, all Panamanian-flagged vessels calling at any Paris MOU jurisdiction port, not just in Italy, are required to submit the checklist to the Panama Maritime Authority 96 hours before the expected time of arrival, as before. Please use the new version of the checklist attached to MMC-402.

In Italy, the detention rate for inspections in 2023 is recorded at 10.98% (180 detentions out of 1639 inspections, according to data extracted from the Paris MOU Inspection Search). This is significantly higher compared to the average detention rate of 3.81% for Paris MOU jurisdiction ports in 2023. We strongly recommend thorough PSC preparation when calling at Italian ports.

Source: Paris MOU Annual Report 2023