China MSA:No penalty for expired certificates during coronavirus outbreak

China MSA's announcement on issues related to ship management during coronavirus outbreak

China MSA is making the following announcement regarding the handling of maritime related matters by Chinese domestic vessels during the period of epidemic prevention and control:
 
1. If the relevant certificates of ships, seafarers, and ship company, signed (approved) by the maritime administration and ship inspection agency expire during the period of epidemic prevention and cannot perform annual inspections, audits or reissues on schedule, they can be postponed. No maritime administrative agency shall impose administrative penalties.
 
2. For "four types of key ships" (ie passenger ships, dangerous cargo ships, ore carriers, and fluidized solid bulk carriers) and medical material transportation ships,if the ship inspection certificate expires but the on-site inspection cannot be carried out due to epidemic prevention and control reasons, The ship owner or operator shall strengthen the safety self-inspection of the ship,timely submit the self inspection report to the ship inspection institution and be responsible for the self inspection report. The ship inspection institution shall carefully review the self inspection report, timely correct the problems found, guide the ship owner and operator to rectify, and ensure that the ship has the technical conditions for safe navigation.

Source:Sarah Yu,XINDE MARINE NEWS

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.