Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Ship Survey

Updated：17 Aug 2018
Source：China MSA

 

Chapter 1 

General Provisions

 

Article 1

In order to enhance ship survey administration, standardize ship survey services and ensure ship survey service quality，the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Ship Survey （hereinafter referred to as the Regulations） are formulated in accordance with the Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People‘s Republic of China, the Regulations of the People‘s Republic of China Concerning the Administration of Traffic Safety on Inland Waters, the Regulations of the People‘s Republic of China on Ship and Offshore Installations Survey , as well as the relevant international conventions which China has concluded or acceded to.

Article 2

The Regulations shall apply to ship survey activities, administrationon ship survey organizations and their personnel.

 

Ship survey in the Regulations refers to survey activities on ships, waterborne installations, marine products and cargo containers carried on board.

 

The Regulations does not apply to military ships, sports ships, fishing vessels and offshore installations engaged in oil and gas production.

 

 

 

Article 3

The Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China （MOT） is responsible for the administration on the ship survey activities nationwide.

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The Maritime Safety Administration of the People‘s Republic of China（China MSA） is in charge of implementing the overall supervision and administration on ship survey activities.

 

Maritime Safety Administration at all levels （MSAs） supervise the ship survey activities in line with their respective obligations.

 

Chapter 2

Ship Survey Organizations and Personnel

 

Article 4

Ship survey organizations refer to the organizationsconducting ship survey, including ship survey agenciesestablished by the MOT,provincial-level governments（hereinafter referred to as the nationalship survey agencies） and ship survey companies set up by foreign classification societies in China（hereinafter referred to as foreign ship survey companies）.

 

　

The MOT and provincial-level governments shall make decisions on the license applications from the national ship survey agencies or foreign ship survey companiesin accordance with theProvisions of the People‘s Republic of China on Maritime Administrative License. The scope of ship survey services shall be specifiedwhen the applications are approved.

The approvedservicesof ship survey organizations shall be releasedby China MSA.

Article 5  

The national ship surveysagencies shall conduct statutory surveys according to their categories（ A, B, C and D）.

.1  Category-A agenciesmayconduct statutory surveysof ships engaged oninternational voyages, ships engaged ondomestic voyages, waterborne installations, freight containers for shipping and associated marineproducts.

.2  Category-Bagencies may conduct statutory surveys of ships engaged ondomestic voyages and associated marine products.

.3  Category-C agenciesmay conduct statutory surveys of ships navigating on inland waters.

 

.4  Category-D agenciesmay conduct statutory surveys of small ships navigating oninland waters, cargo ships navigating on enclosed waters with the ship length no more than 30 meters and the main engine power no more than 50kw and passenger ships with the ship length no more than 30 meters and the main engine power no more than 50kw.

Article 6 

The servicescope of foreign ship survey company is as follows:

.1    to conduct statutory surveys and classification surveys of ships and offshore installations flying or intending to fly the flag of a state in accordance with the authorization of the flag State administration;

 

.2    to conduct surveys of marine products used by the ships and offshore installations specified in 6.1, includingmajor equipment, components and materials;

　

.3    to conduct surveysof freight containers for shipping owned by foreign enterprises; and

 

.4    to conduct classification surveys of Chinese-flagged ships registered in free trade zones and engaged on international voyages with permission from China MSA.

 

　Article 7

Ship survey organizations shall conduct survey activities only within their approved servicescope.

 

Article 8 

 Ship survey organizations shall submit annual reports to China MSA, covering the operations of quality control system, number of surveys and surveyor mobility.

Article 9 

The ship surveyors shall have corresponding expertise and skills and meet the national qualification requirements.

China MSA is responsible for organizing the examinations for ship surveyors and issuing qualification certificates in accordance with relevant national provisions. 



Article 10

The national ship survey agenciesshall provide pre-post training and follow-up knowledge updating training for their surveyors.

Chapter 3

Statutory Survey

Article 11 

The statutory survey refers to the mandatory surveyof the safety relatedtechnical conditions of ships, waterborne installations, marine products and freight containers for shipping, which is carried out by the flag State or itsrecognized ship survey organizations in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, rules and statutory survey technical rules.

Statutory survey includes construction survey, periodical survey, initial survey, temporary survey, towing survey and trial voyage survey, etc.
　　
Article 12 

The owner or operator of the ships and/or waterborne installations registered or intending to register in the People‘s Republic of China, shall apply to the national ship survey agenciesfor a construction survey in any of the following circumstances:


.1    construction of ships and/or waterborne installations;


.2    major conversion related to the ship’s main performance and safety, such as alterations of ship’s principal dimensions, ship’s type, subdivision level, load-carrying capacity, passenger accommodations, main propulsion systems, ship’s stability, etc; or major conversion related to waterborne installations’ safety.

Ship survey application of major conversions shall be filed to the local ship survey agencies where the constructions or major conversions are to be undertaken.

Article 13

The owner or operator of Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations in operation shall apply to the national ship survey agencies which issue ship survey certificates for a periodical survey which can be entrusted to the local ship surveyagency in the operation place.

Article 14

The owner or operator of Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations shall apply to the national ship survey agenciesfor an initial survey in any of the following circumstances:

                                     

.1    foreign-flagged ships and/or waterborne installationsare transferredto the flag of China;

.2    sports ships and/or fishing vessels are converted into ships within the purview of the Regulations;

.3    the validity of the ship survey certificate of a ship in service has been overdue exceeding an interval of a renewal survey; or

.4    the validity of the ship survey certificate of an old transport ship in service has been overdue exceeding an interval of a special periodical survey.

Where circumstances fall under 14.3 and/or 14.4, the new survey interval shall be calculated in accordance with the survey interval of the overdue certificate.

Article 15 

The owner or operator of Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations shall apply to the national ship survey agencies for a temporary survey in any of the following circumstances:

 

.1    the ship’s seaworthiness is affected due to an accident;

.2    the navigation area or purpose on the certificateis changed;

.3    ship’s survey certificate is overdue but not exceeding an interval of a renewal survey;

.4    ship is undergone repair or modification, other than major conversion, for a safety concern;

.5    ship survey agencyis changed;

.6    ship’s nameand/or port of registryis changed;

.7    ship survey isrequired by MSAs due toseriousdeficiencies identified which affect the safety of navigation and environmental protection.

When circumstance falls within 15.3, the national ship survey agencies shall conduct a survey on all overdue items of the ships and/or waterborne installations. The new survey interval shall be calculated in accordance with the survey interval of the overdue certificate.

 

Foreign-flagged ship within the waters of the People‘s Republic of China, when falling in the circumstances in15.1 and/or 15.7, shall file the temporary survey application to the original certificate-issuing ship survey organization. The application shall be filed to the ship survey agencydesignated by China MSA, in case the original certificate-issuing ship survey organization has no company in China.

 

 

Article 16

Towing survey application shall be filedbefore the mobile platforms, floating docks and other large ships and/or waterborne installations are towed in the waters of the People‘s Republic of China.

Article 17

Ship’s owners or operators shall apply to the national ship survey agencyfor trial voyage survey and certificate prior to the trial voyage.

 

Before issuing a trial voyage survey certificate, the national ship survey agencyshall carry out a survey in accordance with the relevant technical requirements and verify the ship’s compliance with the stowage and stability approved by the ship survey organization which conducted the plan approval and construction survey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 18

Whereforeign-flagged mobile offshore drilling vessels and/or platformsintends to operatein the waters of the People‘s Republic of China, application for pre-operation survey and periodical survey during-the-operationshall be filed by the owner or operator thereof to the ship survey organization authorized by China MSA.

 

Article 19 

Marine product surveysshall be carried out on the equipment, components and materials for safety and environmental pollution prevention on board Chinese-flagged ships and waterborne installations.

The scope of marine products subject to surveyshall be releasedby China MSA.

Article 20 

Ship survey organizationshall conduct works approval, type approval and product survey onthe marine products subject to statutory survey in accordance with the statutory survey technical requirements for marine products.

 

 

Article 21 

The manufacturer, owner or operator offreight container for shippingshall apply to the ship survey organizationfor:

.1  works approval, standardized design approval and production survey when manufacturing freight containers.   　

 

.2  operational survey on freight containers in servicewhich may be conducted periodically or according to the continuous survey plan technically reviewed by the ship survey organization.

Article 22  The national ship survey agencyshall input the results of works approval, type approval, standardized design approval of marine products and freight containers for shippingas well as the survey on individual productto the national ship survey database. The resultsshall be released.　

Article 23  The national ship survey agencyshall issue the survey certificates or technical documents to Chinese-flagged ships engaged on domestic voyages, waterborne installations, marine products and freight containers for shippingthrough the national ship statutory survey certification system whenthey are verified to be in compliance with the related technical requirements of the statutory survey.　　

The national ship survey agencyshall issue the survey certificates or technical documents to Chinese-flagged ships engaged on international voyagesthrough the ship statutory survey certification system approved by China MSA whenthey are verified to be in compliance with the related technical requirements of the statutory survey. MSAs shall supervise the process.

The formats of statutory survey certificates, survey reports and records for the ships engaged on domestic voyages are formulatedand releasedby China MSA.

　

Article 24

Ship survey organizationshall establish and implement control procedures and management systems to ensure the quality of surveyand certification.

Article 25The national ship survey organization, when granting equivalence or exemption to Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations in accordance with the Ship Statutory Survey Technical Rules, shall ensure the same performance and safety level maintained as to the requirements of relevant international maritime conventions or the Ship Statutory Survey Rules. The report onequivalence or exemption shall be made to China MSA unless expressly provided otherwiseinthe Ship Statutory Survey Rules.

Chapter 4 

Classification Survey

Article 26  Classification survey refers to the survey on ships and/or waterborne installations conducted by classification societiesfollowing their technical rules upon the application from the owners and/or operators. Corresponding class notation should be assigned afterwards.



Article 27Chinese-flagged ship engaged on international voyages shall file the classification survey application to China Classification Society（CCS） except for the circumstances specified in 6.4.



Article 28The following Chinese-flagged ships engaged on domestic voyages,if intending to apply for classification survey, shall apply to China Classification Society:

.1    seagoing passenger ship with capacity of over 100 passengers;

.2    oil tanker with deadweight of over 1000 tons;

.3    ro-ro ship, liquefied gas carrier and bulk chemical carrier; and

.4    other ship whose owner or operator applies for classification survey.



Article 29

Ship survey organizationshall issue classification certificates or technical documents to  Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations whenthey are verifiedin compliance with the corresponding classification survey technical rules and have obtained statutory survey certificates.



Article 30

Ship survey organizationengaged in classification surveyonChinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations shall submit their classification survey technical rules and certificate formats to China MSA.

Chapter 5 

Ship Statutory SurveyTechnical Rules

 

Article 31

The Ship Statutory Survey Rules coverssurvey systems, safety standards and survey procedures concerning navigation safety and water environmental protection of ships and/or waterborne installations, marine products and freight containers for shipping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 32

The Ship Statutory Survey Technical Rulesisformulatedby China MSA and promulgated for implementation upon approval by the MOT.

 

The local transportation authorities of a province, autonomous region, or central-governed metropolitan may formulateand submit the statutory survey technical rulesfor the follwoing shipsnavigating on its waters to China MSA:

 

.1river ferry with length of 15 meters or less;

.2  cargo ship with length of 20 meters or less; and

.3  passenger ship carrying not more than 12 passengers.

 

Otherwise, the Statutory Survey Technical Rules for Small Ships formulated by China MSA may serve as the reference.

 

Article 33

The authorityformulatingthe statutory survey technical rules shall review the rules in any of the following circumstances:

.1  5 years after the rulescome into force;

.2 significant amendment or modificationtohost laws or relevant international conventions;

.3  major change tothe marinesafety administration which affects the applicabilityof the  rules; or

.4  other circumstances that require areview.

Chapter 6 

Survey Administration

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 34

Ship survey organization shall conduct survey activities in compliance with the laws, regulations and rules of the People‘s Republic of China and relevant international conventions.

 

Ship survey organizationshall constrain its survey activities within the approved servicescope and should not reject the application for statutory survey when the survey condition is met.

 

Ship surveyor shall perform his duty in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and survey rules and abide by professional ethics and practice disciplines.

 

Article 35

Survey activities should not be conducted in any of the following circumstances:

.1  the design, construction and repair organizationof ships and/or waterborne installations does not have the self-controlquality system;

.2 the ships and/or waterborne installations are subject to scrapping or demolishment in accordance with relevant national laws and regulations;

.3  the authentic technical documentsare not provided;

.4 the approval for transport capacity is not issued for ships under construction; or

.5  the ship surveyor is not provided with safety protection.

 

Article 36

The survey activities shall be conducted after the ship survey organizationverifies the conditions of the construction or major conversion of ships and/or waterborne installations are satisfied.

 

Article 37

Ship survey organization shouldnot issue statutory certificate to ships and/or waterborne installationsregistered or to be registered in the People’s Republic of China unless their ship identification numbers are granted by the MSAs.

 

Article 38

The owner or operator of ships and/or waterborne installations, the manufacturer of marine products and freight containers for shipping, the organizationofdesign, construction and repair of the ships and/or waterborne installations shall provide authentic documents as required by the related provisions.

 

Article 39

The owner or operator shall report the scrapping of Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations to the national ship survey organization. The national ship survey organization shallrevoke the survey certificate thereof.

 

 

Article 40

When the ship survey organization ofChinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations ischanged, the new survey organizationshall retrieve the existing survey certificate for file and issue new certificate.

 

When the ship survey organization of ships surveyed in accordance with the statutory survey technical rules of local transportation authorities of a province, autonomous region, or central-governed metropolitan is changed to the organization of other province, autonomous region, or central-governed metropolitan, the new organization may conduct survey in accordance with the statutory survey technical rules of China MSA or local transportation authorities.

 

Article41

In case foreign-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations are mandatorily declassed for seriousdeficiencies, their new foreign ship survey companiesshouldnot conduct the survey unless the deficiencies arerectified.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article 42

Ship survey organizationshall cease the ongoing survey or revokerelated ship survey certificate in any of the following circumstances:

.1   illegal construction and/or major conversion;

.2   providing fraudulent documents; or

.3   deficiency identified in the survey.

The circumstance mentioned in 42. 1 shall be reported to China MSA.

 

When the ship survey organizationfail to revoke the ship‘s surveycertificate tampered or obtained by deception, MSAs shall require the revocation by the organization.

Article 43

Ship survey organizationshall establish a statutory survey quality controlsystem for marine products and revoke the statutory certificate or forbid the use of products on board whenmajor quality deficiencies have been found.
　Article 44

Ship survey organizationshall control and monitor the safety performance and technical condition of the maintenance or testing service provider.

　

 

Article 45

Ship survey organizationshall establish archive system.

When the ship survey organizationof Chinese-flagged ships and/or waterborne installations is changed, all technical documentsincluding the drawings shall be handed over from the existing to the new organization.

 

　　

Article 46

China MSA shall verify the ship survey organization’scapabilities and conditionsand supervise its service quality.

Article 47

MSAs shall notify related ship survey organizationwhen major quality deficienciesofship survey or the circumstances mentioned in 15.1 and/or 15.7 are found.

Major quality deficienciesofship survey shall be reported to China MSA for investigation and follow-up action.

Ship survey organizationshall analyze and rectify problems concerning survey service quality and report rectificationto MSAs.

Article    48

Ship survey organizationshall cooperate with MSAs to carry out supervision and investigation on its survey service quality. Any disagreement with or objection to MSAs supervision and/or investigation may be reported to China MSA.

 

Article 49

Any applicant disagrees with or objects to the conclusion of the survey may apply to the higher-level ship survey organizationfor re-survey. The higher-level organizationshall reply whether the application is accepted within 7 working days. 


Any applicant disagrees with or objects to the conclusion of the re-survey may apply to China MSA for a second re-survey. China MSA will organize an expert group to re-survey, review the result and make the final conclusion. China MSA shall reply whether the application is accepted within 15 working days.

Chapter 7 

Legal Liability

 

 

 

 

Article 50  In case mobile platforms, floating docks,large ships and waterborne installations are towed without towing survey,which isin violation of Article 16, MSAs shall requirethe owner or operator to cease the towing operation and impose penalties as follows：

.1 a fine of not less than RMB 2,000 but not more than RMB 20,000 on the owners or the operators ;

.2 a fine of not less than RMB 1,000 but not more than RMB10,000 on the masters and withhold their Certificates of Competency for 6 to 12 months;

.3 a fine of not less than RMB 1,000 but not more than RMB 10,000 on the persons in charge of waterborne installations.

　Article 51

When a ship is on a trial voyage without a trial survey and fails to hold a trial voyage certificate, which violates the Article 17, MSAs shall require the owner or operator to cease the trial voyageand impose a fine of not less than RMB 2,000 butnot more than RMB 20,000 onthe owner or operator; a fine of not less than RMB 1,000 butnot more thanRMB 10,000 on mastersand withhold their Certificates of Competency for 6 to 12 months.

　

Article 52

When foreign-flagged drilling vessels or mobile platforms engaged in drilling or exploring operations in the coastal waters of the People‘s Republic of China have no pre-operation survey or periodical survey during-the-operations, which violates Article 18, MSAs shall requirethe owner or operator to cease the operation and impose a fine of not less than RMB 5,000 but not more than RMB 30,000.

Article 53

When the ship owner or operator fails to report ship scrapping to ship survey organization, which violates Article 39, MSAs shall impose a fine of not less than RMB 5,000 but not more than RMB 30,000 onthe owner or operator.

 

Article 54

Whenships, waterborne installationsand their major equipment related to navigation safety and pollution prevention fail to have valid survey certificates required byArticle 4 of the Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People‘s Republic of China,MSAs shall impose a fine of not less than RMB 2,000 but not more than RMB 30,000 on the owner or operator in accordance withArticle 44 of the Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People‘s Republic of China.

Whenships and/or waterborne installations sail or operatewithout valid survey certificates,which violates Article 6.1 and Article 7.1of the Inland River Traffic Safety Regulations of the People‘s Republic of China, the cease of such sailing or operation shall be requiredaccording to Article 64 of the Inland River Traffic Safety Regulations of the People‘s Republic of China. Any refusal to the cease requirement will result in the detention or confiscation of the ships and/or waterborne installations.

Ships and/or waterborne installations without valid survey certificates mentioned in the first and second paragraphs of this Article include thefollowingcircumstances:

.1  survey certificates are not granted;

.2  survey certificates are forged, tampered, illegally transferred, bought or rent;

.3  survey certificates are overdue;

.4  survey certificatesare damaged or lost and fail to apply for new ones.

 

Article 55

China MSA shall imposea warning and require rectification within a time limit in case ship survey organization:

.1  conductssurveybeyond the approved scope;

.2  conductssurvey in violation of relevant rules and regulations;

.3  assigns unqualified surveyor to perform survey activities independently;

.4  acceptssurvey application in violation of procedural requirements;

.5  conductssurvey in case of failure to inspect the conditions of construction or major conversion of ships and/or waterborne installations or the inspection results are not satisfied .

 

.6  conducts survey on ships under construction without approval oftransport capacity;

 

.7  fails to control the safety performance and technical condition of its maintenance and testing service provider;

.8  issuesstatutory survey certificate before ship’s identification number is granted; or

.9  is identified with major survey service quality deficiencies.

 

Survey certificate issued thereby is null and void.

During the rectification, no survey serviceis allowed.China MSA shall make the warning and rectification requirement public.

 

Article 56

China MSA shall impose a warning and require rectification in case:

 

.1  national ship survey agenciesfail to provide training for their surveyors;

 

.2  foreign ship survey company fails to provide training for itsforeign surveyors in accordance with the relevant conventions;

.3  ship survey organization fails to report to China MSA as required; or

.4  ship survey organizationhasno archive system.

 

Article 57

In accordance with Article 28 of Ships and Offshore installations Survey Regulations of the People‘s Republic of China, MSAsmay impose warnings on surveyors or cancel their survey qualifications, as appropriate, in case:

.1   surveyors issue the survey certificates without conductingsurvey;

 

.2  surveyors conduct survey beyond the approved scope of their certificates;

.3  surveyors fail to conduct survey in compliance with the statutory survey       technical rules;

.4  surveyors fail to conduct survey according to the prescribed procedures and required items;

.5ship survey certificates or survey reports issued by the surveyors are inconsistent with the actual conditions of the ships and waterborne installations;

.6   major survey quality deficiencies arefound; or

   .7  surveyors refuse to cooperate or providefakedocuments during accident investigations.

Chapter 8

Supplementary

 

Article 58

The Regulations shall come into force onMay 1, 2016.

 

 

（All information published in this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.）


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