A summary of the decisions and discussions taken at the seventy ninth session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 79) held from 1 to 10 December 2004 is given hereunder for your information.

1. Adoption of Mandatory Instruments ? Bulk Carrier Safety related
The discussion of Bulk Carrier Safety issues starting from 1998 was closed at this session. The revised SOLAS Chapter XII to specify additional safety measures for bulk carriers and the amendment to SOLAS Regulation III/31 to make the carriage of free-fall lifeboat mandatory were adopted at this session and will enter into force on 1 July 2006.

(1) Revised SOLAS Chapter XII (refer to Attachment 1)
The main points of the revised SOLAS Chapter XII are as follows:
(I) New definition of "Bulk Carriers" (Reg.1)
The definition of "Bulk Carriers" in SOLAS chapter XII will be changed as follows:
"Bulk carrier means a ship which is intended primarily to carry dry cargo in bulk, including such types as ore carriers and combination carriers."
For the purpose of the revised SOLAS chapter XII, the new definition will contain "ships intended primarily to carry dry cargo in bulk" regardless of cross section of ship as well as typical bulk carriers arranged with top-side tanks and bilge hopper tanks as defined in SOLAS chapter IX.
(Note) Ships such as a chip carrier, an open type bulk carrier and a general cargo ship, etc. will fall into the definition of bulk carriers from 1 July 2006 due to the revised SOLAS XII. Nevertheless, the requirements of the revised SOLAS chapter XII do not apply to these type ships constructed before 1 July 2006.
(ii) Stability and strength requirements for double-side skin construction (Reg.4.2 & 5.2)
For new bulk carriers of 150 m in length and upwards with a double side skin space less than B/5 or 11.5 meter in width and designed to carry bulk cargoes having a density of 1,000kg/m3 and above, the requirements of damage stability and structural strength to withstand flooding of any one cargo hold in all conditions will be required.
(iii) Requirements for double-side skin space (Reg.6.2, 6.3 & 6.4)
For new double-side skin bulk carriers of 150 m in length and upwards, the double side skin space should be arranged such that:

(To be continued)