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Ticking timebomb
by
Richard Meade
Lloyd's List
October 21, 2008 12:00 AM
WHEN the next major European casualty plays out on news pages and TV screens across the continent and beyond, remember this column. Because when insurers start talking publicly about stories of steel plate being cut down to remove the class stamps you can be sure that serious casualties are on their way.
Steel shortages, we have been warned, are leading to an increase in the use of structurally-dangerous secondhand steel; with stories now legion of non-state Chinese yards falsifying quality certificates and the widespread use of low-quality steel products.
Marine insurers are just one part of the industry expressing deep concern over the quality of ships coming out of China, and the havoc that substandard newbuildings could wreak on shipping markets.
This is by no means a secret. These worrying problems are being openly talked about in industry forums. So when the then European environment commissioner slams his fist on his desk and demands to know how this was allowed to happen, remember that the warning bells were being sounded back in 2008 and don’t be surprised by the immediate move to regulate further.
The insurers it seems have realised that they are storing up trouble, but what about the classification societies, the owners and indeed the yards (assuming they are all still standing)?
By the time the regulatory noose starts to tighten it will probably be too late to start asking yourself whether you did enough at the time to honestly say that this was not your fault. By that point the structural problems we will be looking at won’t be related to specific steel plates, they will be industry-wide and everyone who ignored this issue will be accountable.
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