Ships constructed on or after 1 September 1984 and intended for the carriage of dangerous goods shall comply with the requirements of regulation 54 "Special requirements for ships carrying dangerous goods", Chapter II-2 of SOLAS'74, as amended and have certificates of fitness for ship carrying dangerous goods (hereafter referred to as "the DG certificates").

2000 Amendments to SOLAS'74 have entered into force on 1 July 2002. In chapter II-2 of the Amendments, the regulation number has been changed from 54 to 19.

In this connection, ClassNK has changed the form of the current DG certificate in line with IMO standard format of MSC/Circ.642/1027 and has established the procedures as follows. (hereafter ships constructed on or after 1 July 2002 are referred to as "new ships" and ships constructed before 1 July 2002 are referred to as "existing ships".)

1. Main amendments to the form of the DG certificates (Please refer to attachments (1) and (2).)
(1) The column of an expiry date has been added in accordance with MSC/Circ.642/1027.
(2) The number of applicable regulations for new ships and existing ships has been described as II-2 / 19 and 54 to be deleted as appropriate respectively.
(3) The column of "Date on which keel was laid or ship was at a similar stage of construction or, where applicable, date on which work for a conversion or an alteration or modification of a major character was commenced" has been added as particulars of ship.

2. Procedures for the issuance of the DG certificate
(1) After the completion of the following surveys, the service sites of ClassNK should issue an interim DG certificate valid for five months from the date of issuance and an appendix on the carriage of dangerous goods. Subsequently, a permanent DG certificate should be issued at ClassNK Classification Department, based on the interim DG certificate, the appendix, reports, survey completion notice, etc. issued by the service sites.
(I) Initial Survey
(ii) Renewal Survey ("Renewal Survey" means the survey to be carried out at the same time as Renewal Survey of Cargo Ship Safety Construction Certificate (hereafter referred to as "the SC certificate"))
(iii) Occasional Survey relating to the change of ship's name and/or flag state, etc.

(To be continued)
(2) Irrespective of the above (1), where the DG certificates have already been issued to existing ships, in principle, the existing DG certificates should be renewed with the interim DG certificates at the first periodical survey (Annual, Intermediate or Renewal Survey) of the SC certificates on or after 1 April 2003. In this case, the survey to be carried out at the same time as Annual/Intermediate Survey of the SC certificate should be regarded as Occasional Survey of the DG certificate.
(3) In case where an interim certificate would be issued prior to the SC periodical survey specified in the above (2) at the owner's request, Occasional Survey should be carried out.

3. The period of validity of the DG certificate
In principle, the period of validity of the DG certificate should not exceed five years and the expiry date of the DG certificate should be the same expiry date of the valid SC certificate. Further, obsolete DG certificates without the expiry date will be ineffective on or after 1 July 2004.

4. Survey fees relating to the issuance of the DG certificate
Survey fees relating to the issuance of the DG certificate are as per the following Table.
Table ? Surve