PRESS RELEASE 6 MARCH 2017

Encouraging growth recorded by Maritime Cook Islands for 2016; Flag remains attractive with more owners entered with the registry

Maritime Cook Islands (“MCI”), the leading ship registry, registered a 6% growth in its fleet in 2016 with 132 new vessels. The MCI fleet grew from 525 vessels in 2015 to 558 vessels at the end of December 2016.

While growth came from across the board and from a broad selection of deputy registrars, special mention should be made of Deputy Registrar (DR) Cem Ertem and his team in Turkey, DRs TY Cheng and Hilda Loe in Singapore, as well as DR Grant Hobart in Italy who successfully registered an increase in the number of vessels despite others seeing a fall in their numbers.

MCI’s CEO Glenn Armstrong said today: “A big congratulations to everyone connected to the flag for a year which has seen encouraging growth and expansion. In 2017, we hope to further improve the quality of our service, and recognise that everyone has a role to play in contributing to the growth of MCI as a ship registry – it is a team effort; no contribution is too small.”

“In 2016, the MCI-flagged yacht, Askari was awarded ‘Best Charter Crew for Yachts under 50m’ and recently, Tawera, another MCI-flagged superyacht took home the NZ Millennium Cup 2017 – This recognition has given a huge reputation boost to the flag and we are humbled to be part of this.”

Despite the fleet growth, in purely tonnage added terms, the figures represented a 4% decrease in tonnage year on year, with 1,707,853 gross tons, entered on the registry, a decrease of 75,952 gross tons from 2015.

MCI’s latest figures show that 105 vessels were de-registered in 2016.

Mr. Armstrong expressed confidence in the outlook for MCI in 2017 despite last year being one of the gloomiest ever in the maritime industry including the bankruptcy of South Korea’s biggest shipping line Hanjin, which disrupted global trade.

The Hanjin bankruptcy had its positive side, he noted. “We are starting to see some significant merger and acquisition activity at this stage of the cycle – and this shows the industry is improving, slowly but surely,” he added.

Infographic below:

MCI 2016 Review

Ends

About MCI

Maritime Cook Islands is building a world class Open Register for Ships and Yachts from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and its goal is to become the flag of choice for Quality Classed Tonnage and Super Yachts.

Maritime Cook Islands offers responsible ship owners exceptional service.

  1. We aim to keep ships in compliance and to keep them moving. Through our MARCI online Register, we will always know when a vessel is due for a survey or a certificate is about to expire.  We will ensure that ships are maintained in compliance avoiding Port State Control problems.
  2. Through our network of Deputy Registrars, ship owners will be able to conduct business in their own time zone in their own language and get things done quickly and efficiently.
  3. Cook Islands does not impose additional requirements on ship owners beyond the requirements of IMO Conventions read together with the IACS Unified Interpretations.
  4. Through Cook Islands appointed IACS Class Societies and other Recognized Organizations and our network of Flag State Surveyors around the world ship owners should be able to obtain service in virtually any port.

For more information on the Maritime Cook Islands, please visit: https://www.maritimecookislands.com/

For yacht-related matters, please visit: http://ciyachtregistry.com

For more information on this press release, please contact:

Media consultants to MCI

Helix Media Pte Ltd

Edward Ion – edward.ion@helixmedia.asia at +65 9111 6871

Fazirah Sa’im – fazirah.saim@helixmedia.asia at +65 9009 2760