APL re-flags ships to U.S. registry

The APL Singapore gets a change of address.

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 1/1/1998

In a reversal of a decades-old trend, APL has re-flagged four of its container vessels, bringing them back into the United States' registry and staffing them with American crews.

The carrier made the change in response to Congress's decision to provide funding for the U.S. Maritime Security Fleet.

The first ship to be re-flagged from the Marshall Islands registry was the APL Singapore. That was followed by re-flagging of the APL Korea, the APL Thailand, and the APL Philippines. Each of the four ships, time chartered from American Ship Management LLC, has a capacity of about 4,800 20-foot shipping containers.

Under the Maritime Security program, the government pays annual subsidies to operators of eligible U.S.-flag vessels. In turn, the operators make the vessels available to the Secretary of Defense in time of war or national emergency. APL has five other time-chartered vessels in the security fleet in addition to the recently re-flagged ships.