Maritime Cook Islands Gears Up for Stronger 2018
Maritime Cook Islands (MCI), an international ship registry, is planning for another year of expansion after a solid performance in 2017.
Despite the continuing challenging times in shipping, MCI says 2017 saw it make significant progress on several fronts.
For 2017, MCI registered 130 new vessels. Our fleet grew by 3.6%; from 557 vessels at the end of 2016 to 577 (as of 13 December 2017).
With 451,792 gross tonnage (GT) added for 2017, this brings the total GT for 2017 to 1,840,614 (as of 16 December 2017). This represents an increase of 3.76% from 2016’s total GT.
In February 2017, MCI significantly enhanced its technical department and relocated it to Italy , in the process making a series of senior appointments.
The department now has a much stronger presence in the key European market following the appointments of: Paolo Favilli who heads the department; Rachele Andreani as Technical Manager responsible for ISM/MLC and ISPS; Andrea Emanuele Pippa as Technical Manager for surveyors and all other conventions and; Brendan Smith responsible for non-convention vessels.
These appointments represented a major upgrade and clients in the important European region and time zone stand to benefit most from the move.
In 2018, the newly-enhanced technical department will be rolling out a plan to improve the profile and performance of MCI’s fleet.
MCI CEO Glenn Armstrong said: “For 2018 , we shall be focusing on assisting our owners comply with the requirements of the ISM Code through Flag State inspections and other areas in which we can support. In cases where we find issues which need to be remedied with our greater support, we will apply additional safety management audits.
He added: “Our experience shows that most Port State Control issues stem from failures to comply with the ISM Code and we believe these actions will help our owners as well as improve our overall fleet performance.”
“Going forward our flag state inspection regime will be more rigorous. Our support for Port State Control will include greater risk management and we will aim to identify and fix problems before they arise,” Glenn said.
At the annual Deputy Registrars Conference in June 2017, MCI CEO Glenn Armstrong, shared how MCI is approaching 1% of the world’s tonnage and is positive about achieving this target in 2018. After which, the goal is to become a major player in the yacht registration business.
He also shared how MCI will continue to develop products for the yacht market and ramp up marketing to yacht owners, specifically superyacht owners.
