Looking East

Keith Azopardi, of Gibraltar-based Attias & Levy, outlines the efforts being made by the Gibraltar government to capture new business from the Asian markets and establish Gibraltar as a leading shipmanagement centre

THE port of Gibraltar is strategically located at the entrance to the Mediterranean and has for years been not only a significant bunkering port but a location for ship and yacht registration and a useful forum for admiralty litigation. Moves are now being made to further expand the maritime sector by looking to the Asian market to provide maritime services within the European Union.

There is a seafaring tradition in Gibraltar which complements the facilities in the nearby transhipment hubs of other Mediterranean ports. Gibraltar is the staging post for many crew changes, the taking on of provisions and the provision of instructions to vessels passing through the strait of Gibraltar in both directions.

For years the main stay of Gibraltar’s shipping industry has been ship repairing, bunkering, a variety of ship agency services, ship and pleasure yacht registration and ancillary legal services. The government has recently announced that it is bolstering efforts to make Gibraltar a ship management centre because of the significant increase that there has been in the industry as a whole. Not only has bunkering grown to the point that Gibraltar is now the biggest bunkering port in the Western Mediterranean but Gibraltar is well suited to concentrate on areas such as ship management due to the 70,000 vessels that transit the strait of Gibraltar each year. Many of these use Gibraltar for bunkering or other services.

Such efforts are boosted by the highly skilled professional workforce, the regulatory system and the fiscal advantages offered by Gibraltar. Value added tax is not applied in Gibraltar and presents considerable savings on billing costs to ship managers. There are also useful ancillary benefits should vessels seek to register in Gibraltar as it boasts the only other Category One Red Ensign Registry (other than that of the UK itself) within the EU and is fully compliant with all EU legislation and standards.

It was reported last year that the government was promoting Gibraltar as a port of registry and European base for Asian shipowners. The minister responsible for the port recently announced that Class NK, a Japanese classification category used by many Asian owners to class their ships, has become a recognised classification society for Gibraltar-flagged ships. This is seen by the government as an added tool to attract some of the larger Asian shipowning groups to this registry.

In this way Gibraltar hopes to capture more maritime shipmanagement business to boost its maritime industry. By fostering interest from this strong Asian market it is hoped that there will also be consequential growth in ancillary markets such as ship registration. The ship registration market has also seen significant interest in recent years following the incorporation into Gibraltar law of various safety conventions and other legislation intended to strengthen the environmental provisions and the regulatory framework.

To support the establishment of such shipmanagement business, the business-friendly stance of the sector and the government will assist any operator wishing to establish themselves in Gibraltar or to register its vessels at the maritime registry. The highly competitive legal sector also provides support services throughout the business establishment or ship registration process.

Gibraltar has made use of its natural location to grow its maritime industry into one of the pillars of the Gibraltar economy. Having strengthened the regulatory compliance and support services security of the port and consolidated the registration and bunkering sector, efforts are now underway to capture a further niche market which complements the other tiers of the shipping industry.