CESS 2019
Press Release

Committee for Expertise of Shipbuilding Specifics (CESS) held its annual meeting in Milan,
Italy, on 17th and 18th July, 2019, where the member associations, Japan, Europe, China,
Korea and U.S.A., gathered to discuss key issues faced by the global shipbuilding industry.
The meeting was hosted by Europe. The delegates reviewed CESS’s activities from thepast year and the activities expected to take place, and exchanged views to seek further
cooperation in voicing common opinions on shipbuilding issues, where the businessenvironment were commonly perceived as tough and speedily changing.
The CESS activities resulting from the discussion taken by the Top Executive Meeting ofJECKU in 2017 changed the routine of the discussions, and while brief review and sharingof the information on the activities of Active Shipbuilding Experts’ Federation (ASEF)
related to technology will be made, the main focus of the CESS activities to be theplatform to share views and develop common positions on important issues facing theshipbuilding industry, highlighting not only on technical or technological issues which
will be dealt with by ASEF and SEA Europe, but other issues reflecting the businessenvironment, in a way to adapt to the difficulties faced by the shipbuilding industry.
The meeting went on to constructively explore areas where the shipbuilding industry
can jointly work on ideas to positively face the difficulties that needed to be addressedin the severe business environment, and to keep a healthy competitive market in place,where evolutionary thinking was encouraged, while avoiding any conflict with thecompetition rules.
The discussion covered the ways of developing healthier markets, of eliminating substandard ships, of positively addressing the environmental issues, of developing
associations with new or different stakeholders in the market, and of refining the market
analysis, and possible collaboration with ASEF or SEA Europe activities.
An assessment on Port State Control (PSC) activities as part of the Paris and Tokyo MOU’sand United States Coast Guard during 2018 was made. It was noted that all the regions
were steadily carrying out their port state control activities as in previous years which

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CESS 2019
Press Releasesuggests that the quality of the ships are generally improving. The reports showed similar
results from the previous years. It was commonly perceived that further benchmarking
efforts and assessments on information may be helpful to identify other areas of PSC
activities for elimination of sub-standard ships, and it may be worthwhile for theshipbuilding industry to give a closer look at those activities.
In the aspect of closer work on the technical expertise nurtured in the shipbuilding
industry, it was noted that ASEF activities have progressed as it was planned in theprevious year to accomplish the three-year trial period and commencing its post-trial,
and that efforts are being promoted to further enhance its performance and this wasacknowledged by the participants.
CESS will report on its activities at the forthcoming meeting of the JECKU (Shipbuilding)
Top Executive Meeting scheduled to take place in Viareggio, Italy on 24 October, 2019,
where the top executives will discuss when guidance to the CESS activities in the comingyears is expected to take shape.
20 August, 2019
Dave Iwamoto
CESS Chair
c/o The Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan
3rd Fl., The Japan Gas Association Bldg.,
1-15-12, Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001, Japansuzuki@sajn.or.jp

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