CESS 2017
Press Release

CESS, Committee for Expertise of Shipbuilding Specifics (CESS) held
its annual meeting in Long Beach, California, U.S.A., on 26th and 27thJuly, 2017, 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 the U.S.A. The
delegates reviewed CESS’s activities from the past year and theactivities expected to come, and exchanged views to seek further
cooperation in voicing common opinions on shipbuilding issues.
The overall review of those key issues included Ballast Water
Management Systems, the Green House Gas issue (EEDI and Data
Collection System), Goal Based Standards, Containership safety, ISOship vibration standards, and others. The participants attention was
drawn to the point that Active Shipbuilding Experts’ Federation (ASEF),
where shipbuilders’ associations of China, Japan and Korea are the core
members out of the total of 10 members, has been continuing theiractivities in the technical area, and are in the course of acquiring theconsultative status with International Maritime Organization (IMO).
(note: The Chairman was informed before the beginning of the second
day of the meeting that ASEF was successful in having their application
to IMO approved by its Council on 27 July, and this was reported to all
the participants immediately) With this development, the activities ofCESS were naturally combined with that of ASEF to some considerable
extent. Further, particular developments took place between CESA SEA
Europe and ASEF earlier in the year to establish a general cooperative
framework. Additionally, ASEF activities were also supported by theShipbuilding Council of America, with a dedicated network ofcommunication established between them.

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CESS 2017
Press Release

In recognition that ASEF can proceed with their own course of activities
and that CESS may not take any duplicated or conflicting action, theparticipants agreed that the role of CESS should remain to act as aplatform to share views and develop common positions on importantissues, including regulatory matters. CESS will assist in this matter bycommunicating their opinion to counterpart organisations in themaritime industry, and ensuring that it can be done harmoniously in acomplementary manner to the activities conducted by ASEF. The roleof CESS was therefore reviewed in detail.
As the result, the participants agreed that CESS will remain as a JECKU
committee, but will not be engaged with issues that are being handled
by ASEF, but will cover specific roles which ASEF is not able tospecifically handle, such as general follow up of Port State Control
activities, any issues that will be incorporated into future JECKU agenda,
and any issues not necessarily of pure technical nature.
An assessment on Port State Control activities as part of the Paris andTokyo MOU’s during 2016 was made. Further information was provided
from U.S.A., on the port state control activities of the U.S. Coast Guard
during the period. It was noted that all the regions were steadily
carrying out their port state control activities as in previous years whichsuggests that the quality of the ships are generally improving. The
report showed that the shipbuilding quality related deficiencies werekept at low levels, and that ship detentions have remained steady inrelation to previous years. The ship types that are generally older, suchas the reefer fleet and the general cargo fleet have shown above
average detention rates as was noted from years before. An
improvement of these detentions may be possible as the older ships
will be replaced in the future by new ships or, other ship types.
CESS will report on its activities at the forthcoming meeting of the2CESS 2017
Press ReleaseJECKU (Shipbuilding) Top Executive Meeting scheduled to take place inTorrey Pines, California, U.S.A., on 16 November, 2017, where theCESS activities in the future as was discussed during this CESS annual
meeting will be heard and decided.
27 July 2017
Dave Iwamoto
CESS Chairman
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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