FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(May 01, 2003)

Marshall Islands fleet growth has increased by 30 percent in terms of gross tonnage and 29 percent in terms of registered vessels during the last 12 months. This increase amounts to an additional 4,035 million in gross tonnage and 123 vessels registered with the leading open maritime registry. Over 38 percent of the new tonnage was built in Asian shipyards.

By 30 April 2003 gross tonnage rose to 17.32 million and 546 vessels compared to 13.28 grt the year before and 423 vessels. Since the year 2000, the Marshall Islands Registry has doubled in size in terms of gross tonnage and number of vessels. The registry is expected to exceed the 20 million gross ton mark sometime in 2004, according to Bill Gallagher, President of International Registries, Inc. (IRI).

“In the year 2000 we realised that we had built the best flag state administration in the open registry business. We decided to maintain the same infrastructure and immediately started to add improvements over the next few years,” said Mr. Gallagher.

“Our success is due to having adequate resources to do a quality job in the areas of marine safety, vessel registration and documentation, seafarer’s identification and client services. We have 100 employees worldwide and numerous consultants and contract inspectors who assist us,” he added.

In other news, detention rates for Marshall Islands registered vessels dropped by 20 percent during 2001-2002. The Registry is presently on the ‘White Lists’ of the major MOUs.