Marshalls ship registry expands

Shipping

By Giff Johnson

THE Marshall Islands flag

of convenience ship reg istry is now earning the islands close to $500,000 annually with indications that the income from foreirn ships will contin ue to grow.

The registry has grown dramatically in the past two years, accumulating more than 6.5 million gross tons. Although the Marshalls ship registry is still small when compared to the Liberian and other older registries in terms of the actual number of ships registered, statistics show that the Marshalls has the highest tonnage per ship average of any registry in the world larlge ly because it registers many oil super tankers and cargo ships.

According to the Trust Company of the Marshall Islands, which runs the registry, there has been a two million ton or close to 30 per cent increase over the ship’s registry’s tonnage since 1996.

Having paid off its initial debt to the Marshall Islands Development Bank, the Trust is now expanding in Majuro. Its new company headquarters is midway to com pletion, a development that will move the firm from a small rental office above the post office, to its own two-storey, multi room facility with offices not only for ship registry operations but also for its new off

shore corporation registry business.

The Marshalls operation is run by International Registries, Inc., a Reston, Virginia-based firm that in addition to man aging the Marshalls ship and corporate reg istries, also operates the Liberian ship reg

istry.

International Registries, Inc. has man aged the Marshall Islands Trust Company since 1990. When IRI came on the scene in 1990, the registry was in debt and losing tonnage.

The Trust Company management has established the Marshall Islands registry as a respected and reputable company, which has shown tremendous growth in the past two years, particularly among US shipping companies. The close relationship of the Marshall Islands with the US through the Compact of Free Association gives the islands an added adventage in terms of its

stability.

Legislation passed recently by the Nitijela (parliament) allows foreign corpo rations to form offshore companies by reg istering in the Marshall Islands. “Corporate laws modelled after New York and Delaware and recent legislation providing for limited liability companies and trust have greatly increased the interest of the international community in forming off shore corporations,” IRF’s chairman Archibald Stewart said recently. ■

In 1996 [?] was exported from the Marshall Islands by [?] Hong, which operate[?] in Maiure