Seven societies authorised for ISM Code certification in SAR

The Marine Department has authorised seven classification societies to carry out International Safety Management (ISM) Code verification and certification for Hong Kong-registered ships.

They are American Bureau of Shipping, Bureau Veritas, China Classification Society, Det Norske Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, Lloyd's Register of Shipping and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai.

A department spokesman said the code would be implemented in Hong Kong from next month.

Effective from July 1, all inbound vessels had to declare whether they possessed a certified copy of the code's Document of Compliance and Safety Management Certificate.

Vessels also must produce trading certificates at the port formalities office.

'Ships not holding the ISM certificates are subject to port state control [PSC] inspections and may be denied port clearance permits,' the spokesman said.