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Maritime Due Diligence: the Vessel, the Companies Behind It and Their History

For shipping agents, Canal suppliers and every business that works with ships. The hull by its IMO number, who owns and runs it, and what changed along the way.

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A ship can change its name, its flag and its owner in a single year, but its IMO number stays with the hull for life, and the sanctions lists designate the hull by that number. COX screens the vessel by its IMO number, the companies and people behind it by name and identifier, and, when the case calls for it, reads the history of the hull to find the pattern that one search cannot see.

One Hull, Many Faces

Everything around a ship can change except one number. Each layer is checked its own way.

Never changes

The hull and its IMO number

IMO 1234567

Seven digits assigned once, kept through every sale, every new name and every new flag. It is the identifier the lists use to designate a ship, and the one COX searches by: an exact match, with no score.

Name

Changes

How COX checks it: The vessel search finds the designated hull by its IMO number, whatever it is called today, and by name when the name is all you have.

Flag

Changes

How COX checks it: The deep research records every change of flag in the chronology of the hull, where a run of changes reads as what it is.

MMSI and call sign

Changes

How COX checks it: Searched as identifiers too, exactly, against the lists that publish them.

Registered owner

Changes

How COX checks it: Searched as a company. A company search is also compared against the designated hulls, and the row says when what matched is a ship and not the company.

Manager, operator and charterer

Changes

How COX checks it: Searched as companies. Once you open their file, the continuous monitoring checks it again against every new edition of the lists.

Beneficial owner

Changes

How COX checks it: Searched as a person, with PEP status, and against the ICIJ Offshore Leaks, which is a risk list and never a sanction.

Check an IMO Number Before You Search

A search by identifier is exact, so a single digit typed wrong matches nothing. The last digit of a ship's IMO number is a check digit: test it here.

The check digit is right. Search this number in COX as a vessel.

The check digit does not match: review the number before searching it.

The IMO number of a ship has seven digits, with or without the word IMO in front.

How it is computed: the first six digits are multiplied by 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2, and the last digit of the sum must be the seventh digit.

The check runs in your browser: the number is not sent anywhere. It applies to ship numbers; the IMO number of a company follows another rule.

The History of the Hull: the Pattern Is the Finding

A hull is not judged by a snapshot. The deep research builds its chronology from six families of facts, in all three scopes.

01

Construction

Where and when the hull was built: the start of the line.

02

Change of identity

New name, new flag, new MMSI.

03

Change of control

New owner, new manager.

04

Port State Control inspections

What the port authorities found when they boarded.

05

Flagged by third parties

When others pointed at the vessel before any list did.

06

Designation

The act that designated the hull, with its source and its date.

Name, flag, owner and manager changing together is the kind of pattern this chronology exists to show. And when a family of facts could not be covered, the report names it, in the PDF too.

See the deep research

Who It Is For

Professionals and businesses whose client, supplier or counterparty comes with a ship.

Shipping agents

Before attending a call, screen the vessel by its IMO number and the owner and operator who will pay the invoice.

Canal suppliers and contractors

Check your own subcontractors against the list of contractors the Panama Canal Authority has barred, read every night.

Maritime lawyers and ship registration

Before registering, selling, financing or mortgaging a ship, check the hull itself, not only the company that owns it today.

Bunkering, provisions and shipyards

You sell to the ship and someone else pays: screen the vessel, the buyer and whoever sends the payment.

Sale and charter brokers

Screen the hull and both sides of the deal, and keep the sealed report with the file of the operation.

Free zones and logistics

The vessel that carries the goods is part of the operation: screen it by its IMO number along with the buyer and the seller.

What COX Checks in a Maritime Operation

Every check leaves its own record: what was searched, against which lists, with data as of which date, and who decided.

The vessel, by its IMO number

Against the vessels designated by the United Nations 1718 Committee, OFAC, the European Union, including the vessels of Annex XLII, the United Kingdom and Canada, answered from the copy COX keeps of each list.

The companies around the ship

Owner, manager, operator, charterer and shipping agent, each as a company in the list search, with its file and its continuous monitoring.

The people behind the companies

Beneficial owners, directors and legal representatives, with PEP status and adverse media.

Contractors barred by the Canal

The Contractor Sanctions List of the Panama Canal Authority, with each resolution and its term. It bars contracting with the Canal; it is not a sanction.

The deep research of the hull

The chronology of the vessel and its role in your client's file: registered owner, technical manager, charterer or shipping agent. It is charged only when it ends with a valid report.

A whole fleet at once

The bulk screening sheet takes the IMO number, MMSI and call sign columns, and every row gets its own search and its own sealed report.

The Price of a List Search

$0.99USD
Per search, vessel or company

Screening a vessel costs the same as screening a person or a company, and it is charged per search run, from your credits.

Displayed prices do not include taxes. Taxes may apply depending on your location.

Open the credit calculator Services and pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Screen both: the owner, the manager and the operator are searched as companies. But a ship can change its name, its flag and its owner, while its IMO number stays with the hull for life, and the lists designate the hull by that number. Searching the IMO number finds the designated vessel whatever it is called today.

No, and the row says so in those words, next to the IMO number of the hull. It is a finding to review like any other: it may be your client's ship, or a ship that only shares its name. A person confirms or dismisses it with a written reason.

No. It bars a contractor from contracting with the Canal, and it is independent of the PanamaCompra registry, because the Canal contracts under its own rules. It is matched by name only, so a match is a namesake until you confirm it with the resolution and the term the row shows.

Not the vessel: a ship is not a client file, it is a counterparty of one. Screen it at each operation, or a whole fleet with the bulk screening. The companies and people behind it do enter the continuous monitoring once they have their file.

No. COX does not follow the position of the ship or its AIS signal. It screens who and what the vessel is against the lists, and the deep research reads the public history of the hull.

The same as with any other match: a person reviews it and confirms or dismisses it with a written reason, and the decision stays in the record with its date and author. What to do with a confirmed match depends on your law and your prevention manual.

Screen the Next Vessel Before It Calls

Open your account and run the first search with its sealed report.

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