Applicability: Shipowners and operators trading to Chinese ports
From 1 January 2019, a new regulation from the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration (China MSA) means ships must report the energy consumption of their last voyage when entering or leaving ports in China.
Application
This new Regulation on Data Collection for Energy Consumption of Ships, as detailed in 海危防[2018]476号*, applies to ships (excluding warships or fishing vessels), that are:
- Of 400 gross tonnage (GT) and above; or
- Powered by propulsion machinery of 750 kW and above
- Flying any flag (whether for a Chinese domestic voyage or international voyage).
Requirements
Before leaving a Chinese port, a ship must submit to the MSA a report detailing the energy consumption of the last voyage**, using the “Data Report Format for Energy Consumption of Ships”, as provided in the Annex of the Regulation.
A ship can submit monthly, rather than single-voyage reports, provided it is either:
- Sailing in the fixed region with each voyage duration of 4 hours or less; or
- Sailing a fixed route with each voyage duration of 12 hours or less
A monthly report needs to record the energy consumption data daily, or of each voyage, in the logbook or specified record book. The aggregated data of the last calendar month then needs to be submitted to the fixed branch of the China MSA of the related calling port, before the 10th of each month.
Additional requirements, as detailed in Chapter 3 of the Regulation, apply to China-flagged ships of 5,000 GT and above, which undertake international voyages.
How to report
The required data needs to be sent electronically via China MSA’s web-based maritime integrated service system (https://csp.msa.gov.cn).
China-flagged ships can report by themselves or via an agency.
Non-China flagged ships need to report via an agency.
Hong Kong-flagged ships need to report via an agency, as they don’t have an MSA ship identification number and ship operation certificate, so cannot complete the registration on the platform as “ship user”.
Advice to shipowners
According to Chapter 2 of the Regulation, internationally voyaging ships do not need to report energy consumption data for voyages between ports outside China, nor for voyages from Chinese domestic ports to ports outside China.
* The English translation is just for reference only.
** “Last voyage” refers to the navigation, berthing and operation between two adjacent berths. For example, if the ship sails from Ningbo to Shanghai, before leaving Shanghai the ship should report the relevant data during the period from the berthing at Ningbo to the berthing at Shanghai.
For further information contact your local Lloyd's Register Group Office or contact yue.yao@lr.org.
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