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Illustration courtesy Survitec
Port state control detentions have risen by about 70 percent over the past five years, even though the number of inspections has stayed flat, according to a new paper published by Survitec during Posidonia.
The report draws on data from the main PSC inspection regimes and finds that detention is no longer a rare event confined to "problem" ships. Only half of all inspections now pass without deficiencies, and one in seven merchant ships will likely be detained at least once in the next three years. Most detained ships are caught only once, so the increase is not the work of repeat offenders, the data shows.
Global inspections have held at around 75,000 a year since 2023, according to Survitec, but detentions in the Tokyo MoU - the busiest regime - doubled from 526 in 2021 to 1,255 in 2025. The Paris MoU detention rate has stayed near 4 percent, above the global average. The Black Sea MoU recorded the highest rate last year at 6.8 percent, reflecting the high number of older freighters and bulkers found in the region.
As might be expected, age is the strongest single predictor of detention across every regime, with the risk rising sharply at 15 years and even further at 20. The average age of the global fleet is aging, driving deficiencies upward: the share of ships 25 years or older rose from 36 percent in 2014 to 44 percent in 2024, as owners hold on to vessels for longer, hoping to wait out high newbuilding prices and the uncertainty over which future fuel to pick. This lines up with quality issues and casualty data: Allianz reports that half of the incidents in 2024 involved ships of 20 years or more, and the average age of a vessel lost to a casualty (an increasingly rare occurrence) was 29 years.
The top deficiencies behind detentions have changed little in years. Inspectors continue to focus on failures of the International Safety Management (ISM) code, fire safety, and life-saving appliances - in short, baseline safety issues. Survitec, which specializes in fire and survival equipment, looked closely at the PSC codes for fixed firefighting systems, lifeboats and liferafts. Most detentions come from systemic and preventable lapses in maintenance and crew training, Survitec says, rather than from sudden equipment failures.
To avoid PSC problems, Survitec recommends that owners should invest in quality third-party inspection services. Even at low-end charter rates of $10-18,000 per day, inspection services pay for themselves if they prevent one detention in three years, Survitec says.
Survitec also points to one regulatory gap it has raised at the IMO through ILAMA, the lifesaving-appliance makers' association. The rules require periodic renewal of lifeboat fall wires and hooks (a hard-earned safety lesson) but sets no mandatory replacement interval for the chain and link parts in the lifting assembly. These components can stay in service for 15-25 years, the full commercial lifespan of many vessels. Even though chain and link parts are not specifically regulated by SOLAS, Survitec recommends replacing or testing them every five years.
Fuente: Maritime Executive
