Republic of the Marshall Islands Decentralization Model Drives Growth

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Registry has seen a busy year, with both significant fleet and service expansion. Surpassing the milestone of 100 million gross tons (GT) at the start of 2014, the RMI Registry has continued that unprecedented growth and closed the first quarter of 2015 with over 118 million GT.

International Registries, Inc. and its affiliates (IRI), who provide administrative and technical support to the RMI Maritime and Corporate Registries, are focused on the development of a five year plan to ensure the RMI Registry’s personnel, services, and standards continue to be in line with the high level of quality the industry has come to expect.

“Greek, American, Korean, Norwegian, and German owners are the top five ownership groups as far as size in the RMI fleet,” said Bill Gallagher, President of IRI. According to the International Shipping Logistics (ISL) Shipping Statistics Yearbook, the RMI Registry has been the largest foreign flag in the United States and Norway, surpassing their national flags in terms of deadweight tonnage (DWT) in 2010 and 2013, respectively. In addition, and based on the March 2015 Greek Shipping Cooperation Committee’s Report on Greek Controlled Shipping, the RMI flag is now the largest foreign flag in Greece in DWT and second in ranking overall only to the Greek flag in terms of DWT capacity. The sustained growth of the RMI flagged Greek controlled fleet, with market share rising from 12\% in 2010 to 17\% by the end of 2014, reflects that the RMI is the top foreign flag choice among Greek shipowners and operators. Furthermore, Clarksons Research Services World Fleet Monitor’s January 2015 Report showed the RMI Registry growing at 14.4\% with an average fleet age of 8 years, the fastest growing and youngest fleet among the top ten flags in terms of GT.

“There are over 200 owners/operators based in Greece that have vessels registered in the RMI, and they represent just over 35\% of the overall gross tonnage of the RMI Registry,” continued Mr. Gallagher. Theo Xenakoudis, Director, Worldwide Business Operations and Managing Director of IRI’s Piraeus office, carries on the legacy of his father, Captain Constantinos Xenakoudis, who was instrumental in laying the foundation for the success and growth of the RMI Registry within the Greek shipping community. “As my father used to say to us, if you support the Greek shipping community, they will support you,” said Mr. Xenakoudis. “With a strong Greek office offering a wide range of maritime services to Greek operators, we certainly have made that commitment,” continued Mr. Xenakoudis.

“The RMI Registry moved into the world’s number three position in 2010 with just over 52 million gross tons and had 200 worldwide employees at that time,” said Mr. Gallagher. As the RMI Registry continues to grow, IRI’s vast network of regional offices has expanded correspondingly to manage this growth. Recently, IRI established a second full-service office in Hong Kong, and expanded seafarer documentation services in the Mumbai and London offices. In addition, increased inspection resources have also been added in the Long Beach, CA, Baltimore, MD, and Houston, TX offices in the United States (US), allowing RMI inspectors to work closely with local port State control (PSC) officials, therefore maintaining the quality of the RMI fleet and saving owners and operators costly delays. “Today the RMI Registry has 350 worldwide employees and expects to continue to perfect the decentralization model of the RMI Registry’s services and make them even more accessible to stakeholders,” said Mr. Gallagher. “We are thankful for the continued support of our owners and operators and will strive to provide the best service possible from our worldwide offices,” concluded Mr. Gallagher.

IRI

IRI, with more than 65 years of experience as a maritime and corporate registry service provider, has a network of offices in Baltimore, Dalian, Dubai, Ft. Lauderdale, Geneva, Hamburg, Hong Kong (Harbour Road and Gloucester Road), Houston, Imabari, Istanbul, Long Beach, London, Mumbai, New York (midtown and downtown), Piraeus, Rio de Janeiro, Roosendaal, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, Washington, DC/Reston and Zurich, that have the ability to register a vessel or yacht, including those under construction, record a mortgage or financing charter, incorporate a company, issue seafarer documentation and service clientele. In order to meet higher expectations, IRI has expanded its worldwide coverage to include representation in Chile, Limassol, Oslo, and Port Said. IRI concentrates solely on administering the RMI flag and provides a broad spectrum of registry related services for the shipping and financial services industries.