With CII now in force, should my T/C mention CII?

Published: 06 January 2023

MARPOL Annex VI, regulations 26 & 28 incorporates requirements on ships of 5000 GT and above of certain types to amend their Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plans (SEEMP) with a new mandatory part III, and to calculate their “required annual operational CII” and their “attained CII” for each year starting 1 January 2023.

The new mandatory part III of the SEEMP includes an implementation plan documenting how the required annual operational CII will be achieved for the next 3 years. The plan contains measures and actions the ship will take in this regard, and requires monitoring and follow up by the company (ISM company of the ship). The plan shall be approved by the Administration and should be applied.

Compliance with the regulations entails the monitoring of the attained CII, calculation of the required CII, and carriage of a Statement of Compliance issued by the Administration stating the rating the ship based on the comparison of the attained CII with the required CII – recalling that the required CII is the mid-point of the c-rating band. The first rating will be issued in the spring of 2024.

Compliance with the regulation further entails application of the implementation plan. This literally means that what is in the approved plan must be done. If the plan contains elements/measures which cannot be applied for one or another reason, the plan should be amended and reapproved for it to be implementable.

With regard to commercial agreements such as time charter parties, it should be carefully evaluated in each case how ships subject to the above MARPOL requirements can maintain compliance. The implementation plan in the SEEMP is an important part, and as a minimum the charterer should allow its application under the terms of the charter party. We do not recommend that owners agree to clauses, which may limit owners’ ability to fully comply with the mandatory elements of the SEEMP.

To avoid unnecessary disputes and discussions at a later point, we encourage this topic to be clearly addressed during negotiations of charter party terms to allow owners’ compliance with regulations. See also CII OPERATIONS CLAUSE FOR TIME CHARTER PARTIES 2022 which BIMCO recommends for time charter parties.

What best describes your reason for contacting BIMCO?

This helps us direct your call to the correct department.

Please select a reason for contacting BIMCO from the list above to find the best contact number