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Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) in 1968, Technical Assistant Department of IRISL has been one of the main divisions in IRISL organization. At that point, technical management of fleet ships was carried out by foreigners. Gradually, foreign forces were replaced by Iranian sailors and all the activities of the technical division of IRISL fleet were taken by Iranian forces, so that it can be said that the main body of the technical assistant consists to offshore forces.

During the sanctions, ship management department of the technical assistant to IRISL was first renamed to “Soroush Sarza Asatir Ship Management Co.” and then to “Rahbaran Omid Darya Ship Management Co.”, so that the technical management of the ships could be still continued steadily in the unpleasant circumstances of the sanctions. Fortunately, with the grace and favor of God, ROD Ship Management Co. could accomplish its activities properly in 2016 which was a very critical year for IRISL.

Supplying chain management, managing the planned maintenance and preventive maintenance of ships, providing professional advice and guidance to ships, giving specialized consultations to both the owner and exploiting company, implementation of international laws and regulations for the ships under management, providing specialized consultations in order to buy and sell vessels, performing different stages of flag transfer, changing the class and name of the ships upon the request of the owner, updating software, hardware, telecommunication and satellite equipment of vessels, providing specialized services to the owner regarding the shipbuilding, managing the voyage maintenance of the ships, managing periodic repairs, and damages managing the inspection and keeping up to date the certificates of the ships, managing to protect the ships against piracy, optimal cost management of ships, managing the equipment and machinery updates of the ships, eliminating the technical off-hire, estimating the annual budget of the ships and informing the owner are among the main activities of Ship Management Co.

What effects did the JCPOA have on the activities of the company? 

With the formation of the JCPOA in January 2014, many foreign companies including logistics companies and rating agencies had interrupted their communications with IRISL due to the sanctions and we were not able to use their services, but after THE JCPOA they return to Iran. Different groups of shipbuilding and maintenance sections from different countries such as Poland, China, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE,… has communicated wish ROD Ship Management Co. and fortunately, good achievements were also gained. Employing the international classification societies was one of the extremely valuable achievements. Before the sanctions, some classification societies such as LLOYDS, DNV GL, and BV cooperated with technical department of IRISL but their cooperation was discontinued due to the sanctions. However, in addition to these societies, others including RINA, NK, KR, CCS, PRS, and IR are also added in the Post-JCPOA period, the cooperation with six of these classification societies started after several negotiations. It is noteworthy that taking advantage of the international classification societies was always one of the goals of the CEO of IRISL, as the arrival of fleet ships to many foreign ports was impossible without incorporation of the mentioned societies. Fortunately, the negotiations with these societies was successful and the important achievement in the Post-JCPOA was simultaneous use of both domestic and societies, so that with continued cooperation with domestic societies, the field of growth for local society was developed and we hope to see the creation of a domestic international societies on the global stage in the near future. I should do mention that changing the class of the vessels was a codtly process for any ship management company, particularly when we had to ...... from Non-IACS to IACS societies. One of the requirements of the international classification societies to change the class is to dock the ship; however, it did not take place perform with the insistence of ROD Co. For the eagerness to cooperate with IRISL and entering the market, they accept not to perform it and substitute it with case inspections. During the inspections, they achieved the desired results as the ships were managed effectively and desirably during the sanctions. Because of non-acceptance of dock operation on vessels, fortunately, Ship Management Co. could prevent to exit about ten million dollars from the country and the class of 66 fleet ships were changed from domestic societies to Joint venture ones, by the end of the Iranian year (March 2017).

ROD Ship Management Co. has technical representative offices in Singapore, China, and the UAE. These offices take the necessary steps regarding the planning for voyage repairs and providing required parts and supplies for the vessels and they report their performance at the end of each month. Due to the conditions created by Post-JCPOA, German representation office will soon reestablish its activities and the technical representative of this company will be soon added to that office so that in European trips, the ships could solve their issues via this office.

During the sanctions, the business trips of fleet ships were stopped to many foreign ports, however, by the implementation of the JCPOA in 2016, these trips were started again, in a way that the fleet ships of IRISL had 31 voyages to European ports, 26 trips to South American ports, two to Japanese ports and one traffic to Australia in 2016-2017. Thanks to the efforts of staff on board and back up of office technical assistance, these ships have not been detained when they were inspected by port authorities of these countries. 2016 -2017 (1395 in Iranian calendar) was a very critical year for ROD Ship Management Co., since on the one hand, upon the order of the CEO of IRISL, technical costs must have been managed and reduced and on the other hand, ships’ traffic to European and South American ports and other areas should had been started effectively. Since there was a probability of observing the deficiency and detention by the port authorities, it doubled the responsibility of this company for the preservation of assets of IRISL. That’s why all my colleagues at Ship Management Co. and the respectful sailor staff have taken this important step with more interactions and fortunately, we were succeeded. By providing the necessary supplies and spare parts for the fleet ships, not only the technical costs were reduced by five percent, but also we had sustained 81 percent increase in traffic of these ships that represent the good performance of domestic technical specialists compared to foreigners

Iran-o Hind Shipping Co. is a joint company between IRISL and the Indian partner. Because of the pressure exerted by the Western countries during the sanctions, the Indian party was reluctant to continue the cooperation, so the operation of Iran-India Shipping Co. was actually stopped and business plans of two tankers and four bulk carriers of Iran-India Shipping Lines Co. were disturbed. Meanwhile, a number of tankers were also added to the fleet of IRISL during the sanctions and the number of these ships totally reached to 21 and it was under the management of Marin Dadban Co. due to the sanctions conditions. This company has somehow used three Indian intermediary companies in order to be able to supply and purchase the necessary supplies. Inevitably, at that point, IRISL paid 1.5 million USD per year to intermediary companies. By obtaining approval from senior management of the company at 2016, the management of these ships was transferred to ROD Ship Management Company. Accordingly, while avoiding the withdrawal of $1.5 million from the country, technical management of 17 tankers and 4 bulk carrier of Iran o Hind Shipping Lines Co. was at the disposal of this company. By inclusion of these 21 mentioned ships under the management of ROD Ship Management Co., the number of ships of this complex reached to 90.

Fortunately, based on the policies adopted, the number of ten ships (four mega-size ships and six tankers) will be added to the fleet during 2018 and 2019. However, due to the high average age of the fleet, the fleet development should still be continued. Currently, IRISL has the first rank in the Middle East and this brand should be maintained. In this reason, ministries and national authorities should pay attention to keep this rank; we will lose many advantages by losing this rank. We hope that the average age of the fleet reduced from 15 to ten years by removing obstacles and ordering and buying newer vessels. Based on the plans made by Hyundai Shipbuilding, the steel cutting of the first mega-size container vessel will start on 3 July of this year and the first ship will be delivered on March 2018, in other words, on average, IRISL will receive every month and a half a ship from the next eight months and the total number of ships will be delivered to IRISL during 17 months. Technical Affairs and R&D department of ROD Ship Management Co. in coordination with the Office of Studies and Supervision of fleet affairs of the technical assistant of IRISL played an effective role in finalizing the contract for ordering 10 ships.

The vision of Ship Management Co. in 2017 is so technical and professional so that we could keep the company’s assets. Hope to God Almighty, the first priority of this company is the installation of comprehensive Ship Management Software (MESPAS), equipping the fleet vessels with V-SAT satellite communication system and equipping and deploying fleet vessels with VIDEO-TEL educational package so that the asset of shipping will be maintained and insured for years by deploying these packages.