The Maritime Safety Committee,
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Resolutions - Maritime Safety Committee - Resolution MSC.168(79) - Standards and Criteria for Side Structures of Bulk Carriers of Single-Side Skin Construction - (Adopted on 9 December 2004) - The Maritime Safety Committee,

The Maritime Safety Committee,

 RECALLING Article 28(b) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Committee,

 RECALLING ALSO SOLAS chapter XII on Additional safety measures for bulk carriers, which the 1997 SOLAS Conference adopted with the aim of enhancing the safety of ships carrying solid bulk cargoes,

 RECALLING FURTHER that, having recognized the need to further improve the safety of bulk carriers in all aspects of their design, construction, equipment and operation, it examined the results of various formal safety assessment (FSA) studies on bulk carrier safety,

 RECOGNIZING that banning of alternate hold loading of heavy cargoes in full load condition for bulk carriers of single-side skin construction not meeting appropriate side structural strength requirements would contribute to improving the safety of these ships by reduction of shear forces and bending moments,

 NOTING resolution MSC.170(79) by which it adopted, inter alia, the revised chapter XII of the 1974 SOLAS Convention, in particular regulation XII/14 - Restrictions from sailing with any hold empty, where reference is made to mandatory standards and criteria which a bulk carrier has to comply with in order to avoid the above-mentioned restrictions,

 ACKNOWLEDGING that the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) has issued the following relevant Unified Requirements:

  • S12 Rev.2.1 - Side structure in single side skin bulk carriers; and
  • S31 - Renewal criteria for side shell frames in single side skin bulk carriers not built in accordance with UR S12 Rev.1 or subsequent revisions,

 CONSIDERING that the above IACS Unified Requirements embody respectively the standards and criteria necessary to ascertain whether regulation XII/14 of the Convention should apply to a particular bulk carrier, and, therefore, should form the basis of the said standards and criteria,

 HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment at its forty-seventh session,

  1. ADOPTS, for the purposes of the application of regulation XII/14 of the Convention:

  • .1 the Standards for side structures in single-side skin bulk carriers, set out in Annex 1 to the present resolution; and

  • .2 the Renewal criteria for side shell frames and brackets in single-side skin bulk carriers not built in accordance with the Standards for side structures in single-side skin bulk carriers, set out in Annex 2 to the present resolution;

  2. INVITES Contracting Governments to the Convention to note that the annexed Standards and Renewal criteria will take effect on 1 July 2006 upon the entry into force of the revised chapter XII of the Convention;

  3. REQUESTS the Secretary-General to transmit certified copies of this resolution and the text of the annexed Standards and Renewal criteria to all Contracting Governments to the Convention;

  4. FURTHER REQUESTS the Secretary-General to transmit certified copies of this resolution and the text of the annexed Standards and Renewal criteria to all Members of the Organization which are not Contracting Governments to the Convention.


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