Japanese shipyard welcomes future UK flag newbuilds
Delivery of the first of five bulkers for Rio Tinto sees 'voyage of discovery' for owners




RTM Wakmatha, the first of five new-build 56,000 GT Bulk Carriers for Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto joined the UK Ship Register at the end of last week (Friday 10th August) following its early delivery ahead of schedule from Namura Shipbuilding of Japan.

The construction of these ships along with the launch of the UK Ship Register, with its new customer service approach, has helped dispel many long-held and outdated perceptions in the Far East shipbuilding sector that building to UK Flag means increased costs, bureaucracy and additional construction requirements.

Initial reticence by Namura Shipyard to build to the UK Flag was resolved when it was agreed to use the UK Ship Register’s Alternative Compliance Scheme. This streamlines certification by minimising any duplication of work between the Flag State and Classification Society, in this case Lloyds Register, allowing Class to perform almost all the statutory surveys required under the SOLAS, MARPOL and Load Line Conventions.

In addition, the UK Ship Register nominated Lloyds Register’s Yokohama Office as the single point-of-contact with the shipyard throughout the build programme, whilst both Lloyds Register and the UK Ship Register agreed to a three week plan approval time, which in practice usually took less time.

As a result, Mr. Haruao Kunihiro, General Manager of Initial Design Department of the Namura Shipyard, confirmed that the yard would be ‘very happy to build ships to the UK Flag’ under similar arrangements in the future.

The ‘RTM Wakmatha’ and its sister ships are the first venture into ship ownership by Rio Tinto. The process of registering under the UK flag has been described as a ‘voyage of discovery’ by Alastair Fischbacher, Rio Tinto Marine’s UK General Manager.

“Although Rio Tinto Marine is well versed in chartering, operations and technical matters, we have not had much experience in dealing with ship registration in the UK. We started the process just before the change in the UK Ship Register and initially found that procedures needed to be followed but nobody told you what you had to do.

“All that changed when the UK Ship Register was formed and we were allotted a dedicated Customer Account Manager and Customer Service Manager who are on hand at all times. All we needed to do was make contact and our uncertainties were resolved.”

The four remaining sister ships are due to be delivered on a rolling basis over the next two years, two during next year with the final two being delivered in 2009.

RTM WAKMATHA is managed by ASP Ship Management at their UK office in Glasgow.