Avoiding deficiencies and detentions during PSC

According to the current ICS Flag Performance table, Portugal is recognized as a high-quality flag.

Portugal has excellent PSC statistics in 2023 and 2024 so far, thanks to the efforts of ship managers and owners. We extend our gratitude to the ship owners and managers of Portugal for their commitment to maintaining a good safety record. While preventive maintenance is crucial to avoid any defects, it is recognized by the IMO in the Guidelines for PSC (MSC. Res A 1138(31), chapters 2.3.6 & 2.3.7) that equipment may become malfunction.

To avoid detentions when safety equipment is defective, it is important to:

• Notify the Recognized Organization (RO) of the defect.
• Notify the Port State Authority when the defect is identified prior to arrival or when in a port.

To avoid PSC deficiencies, it is important to:

• Regularly check the ship’s equipment prior to arrival.
• Find any potential defects before a PSCO identifies them and report them to the RO and PSC organization.

If defects are only identified by PSC Officers, it is crucial that, prior to the end of the PSC inspection, the failure reporting as per SMS is activated to avoid an ISM-related deficiency.

Owners and managers can contact the PSC department of EUROMAR at psc@eu-registry.com for any resources to ensure compliance prior to arrivals at ports.