German Flag improved in ranking
Last year the German Flag placed 34 in the Flag State Ranking of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU), now it managed a jump to 21. This is based on the recently published White-Grey-Black List of the Paris MoU, which is valid from 1st July.
The reason for the improvement of the German Flag in the ranking is less detentions of German-flagged ships at port state control inspections throughout the last year. This puts the German Flag in this year's ranking ahead of the flags that are most chosen by German shipowners: Portugal (this year: 22, last year: 26), Liberia (this year: 30, last year: 25) and Antigua/Barbuda (this year: 35, last year: 31).
As in the previous year, Denmark came first in the Paris MoU ranking. The Netherlands came second (last year: 4) and Norway third (last year: 5). The world's largest flag, Panama, is on place 55 (last year: 46) and therefore in the Grey List of the Paris MoU. Just like the previous year, of all the flag states covered Cameroon comes last in the ranking on place 71.
The White-Grey-Black List of Paris MoU is based on the total number of inspections and detentions of flags with at least 30 inspections during a three-year period. The ranking is published every year and among other things, it determines how often ships will get inspected in port state controls.