On 3 April 2024, China MSA issued a notice on the special action to prevent mechanical and electrical equipment failures on ships. We have obtained information by Huatai Insurance Agency & Consultant Service Ltd. For details, please find attached their circular.

The period, targets and inspection approaches of the special action are as follows.

Period
The special action will start from 7 April 2024 and end on 31 October 2024.

Targets
The targets are the ships entering the Chinese ports (including seaports and river ports).

Inspection Approaches

1. The MSA at all levels shall conduct detailed inspections on ship's mechanical and electrical equipment in combination with their routine safety inspections.

 

2. If it is discovered through various channels that a ship has experienced mechanical and electrical equipment failures, in principle, a special inspection shall be followed.

 

3. For ships that experienced two or more mechanical and electrical equipment failures in the past 12 months, the MSA will invite their shipping companies and ship inspection institutions to jointly carry out inspections, and require ships to submit accident analysis reports and preventive measures for mechanical and electrical equipment failures.

Additionally, ships experienced mechanical and electrical equipment failure should proactively report to the local MSA and accept special safety inspections as required. For ships that fail to proactively report mechanical and electrical equipment failures, once discovered by the MSA, more stringent and severe penalties will be imposed in
accordance with the law.

Referring to the attached “Special Inspection Guidelines for Preventing Ship Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Failures”, in combination with the ship’s “Pre-departure inspection checklist”, it is recommended to develop key inspection items for mechanical and electrical equipment that applicable to the ship. Ships shall also conduct pre-departure self-inspection according to the requirements, and timely rectify any deficiency or hidden problems identified during the self-inspection. Please also make sure that the crew are familiarised with the emergency response measures and are able to operate and test various mechanical and electrical equipment properly and effectively in comply with corresponding procedures or instructions, and report any failure related accidents or near misses and rectify the deficiencies identified therefrom.