Japanese Shipowners' Association
JSA
The Japanese Shipowners' Association (JSA) is a nationwide maritime organization of Japanese nationals who are owners, charterers and operators of ships with a capacity of 100 gross tons and over.
ID: 549233936697-75
Lobbying Activity
25 Sept 2023
As the Japanese Shipowners' Association, we represent 136 member shipping companies. In that respect, we provide feedback on the proposed draft text for the application of Directive 2003/87/EC regarding the administration of shipping companies by administering authorities in respect of a shipping company. Request: Considering ownership and contracts of shipping companies in Japan, we request that the EU allow the Beneficial Owners, who established a registered owner (shell) company, to open a registry account for compliance purposes. Background: In accordance with the draft Directive, for the purposes of EU ETS, shipping companies shall be recognized as Registered Owners as per the Articles. However, the majority of Registered Owners of Japanese-operated vessels are shell companies, which are not eligible to be ISM Code implementation companies. Furthermore, since the Beneficial Owners may establish one shell company (registered owner) for just one vessel, we are afraid that the registration scheme may be over-complicated for the administering authority. Considering the above, it makes sense that in Article 1, a Ship Manager is permitted to be an entity on behalf of the Registered Owner and be responsible for implementing ISM requirements and the EU ETS. For your information, however, for Japanese shipping companies, a ship management contract is signed between a Registered Owner and a ship management company, but substantially between a Beneficial Owner and a ship management company due to the above reasons. However, for the purposes of commercial management, a contract is signed between a charterer (Beneficial Owner) and the cargo shippers since this ship management contract does not include commercial management. In the regular ship management contract, consequently, ship Managers shall be responsible for undertaking ship maintenance, safety, and complying with international rules. Under the draft EU ETS Articles, the Ship Managers are now tasked to buy EUAs and surrender them, and we consider that it would be difficult for them to judge the timing to purchase EUAs without consulting the Beneficial Owners. Furthermore, as a background, we need to take into account that the shipping companies in Japan have both owner's and charterer's aspects. Once a company stands on a charterer's part, it must deal with an opponent owner for the EUA. Under the EU ETS system, an entity shall surrender EUA a year after the data collection. During this period, as the price of EUA will be volatile, dealing by cash transfer is not preferable for the Beneficial Owners, and transfer of EUA between registry accounts is a better way. In this regard, we think it is helpful that a beneficial owner should manage EUA distribution by pooling their beneficial-owned vessels on behalf of the ship management companies. Proposal: Given the issues outlined above and for ease of implementation, we propose that: The Ship Managers or the owners (registered owners) shall be responsible for collecting data, verification, surrender, implementation of the ISM Code, etc., as in Article 1. On the other hand, for the purposes of the EUA, the Beneficial Owner can be allowed to open a compliance registry account and buy EUA for adjustment with the Ship Managers, under the ability for a Beneficial Owner to pool fleet vessels. Conclusion: Our proposal is aimed at ensuring the effective implementation of the EU ETS by Japanese shipping companies by resolving inconveniences for non-EU countries such as Japan. We sincerely hope you will give the above request to open a registry account (for compliance purposes) for the beneficial owners due consideration. Note: We attach one of our members comments which request your kind clarification.
Read full responseResponse to Prolongation of the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation
23 Dec 2019
The Japanese Shipowners' Association (JSA) fully endorses the joint submission filed by ICS, ASA, and WSC on this issue filed on 20 December.
The JSA especially welcomes the Commission's intention to prolong the Consortia BER and echoes its main findings concerning effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value.
Please refer to the uploaded document concerning the details.
Read full response