Ships, ports to miss ISPS security code deadline

Ships, ports to miss ISPS security code deadline    It now looks virtually certain that many ships and ports will fail to comply with the International Ship and Port Facility Security code of the International Maritime Organization by July 1.
   A May 17 survey of 35 governments by the IMO showed that only 1,902 of their 20,722 ships have received their ISPS ship security certificates, representing a percentage of just 9.2 percent, with six weeks left for all the other vessels to comply.
   An IMO spokesman told American Shipper that figures were changing every day. The 9.2-percent compliance percentage showed an increase from the 2.6-percent ratio reached on March 12, she noted.
   The International Association of Classification Societies reported a higher proportion of compliance among its members. It said 20.4 percent of its 11,568 ships have received a security certificate, up from 3.7 percent in March.
   Germanischer Lloyd, the German classification society, has spoken of a serious bottleneck in the compliance process as shipowners scramble to meet the deadline.
   Equally worrying is IMO statistics that, out of 5,578 port facilities for which 35 surveyed governments are responsible, only 301 facilities, or 5.4 percent, had received port security certificates under the ISPS code as of May 17.
   The U.S. Coast Guard has warned that it intends to deny entry to U.S. ports for vessels without security certificates.
   Shippers and shipping lines are unsure about whether, after July 1, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Customs and Border Protection will initially tolerate late security compliance by ships, or whether they will target all non-compliant ships as well as cargoes coming from non-security-compliant overseas ports.