Owners: Time's too short to install multi-billion dollar ballast treatment
TOO little time has been allotted to retrofit tens of thousands of vessels with ballast water treatment systems - at US$1 million to $5 million per ship - to comply with United Nations standards because member states have taken too long to ratify the convention, thus drastically shortening implementation time.
Concerns over the impact on aquatic life, such as the introduction of invasive species when ballast water is taken from one area in the world and discharged in another, has been the source of the new UN regulatory regime."It will be very difficult to retrofit tens of thousands of ships within two or three years as the convention currently requires," said Masamichi Morooka, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), that represents 80 per cent of the world's merchant tonnage.This was the conclusion of representatives of leading associations of shipbuilders, classification societies and shipowners, which recently met in Busan for a meeting held by the Korean Register of Shipping and KOSHIPA, the national shipbuilders association.This will put unattainable demands on ship repair facilities, engineering capabilities and on the relatively small number of manufacturers that have developed suitable treatment equipment, reported London's Tanker Operator. If rules are not changed, a large number of treatment equipment costing billions of dollars may be required to be installed on ships with the prior knowledge that these systems may not always work reliably to the demanded biological efficacy, said the report.
Moreover, even sophisticated new treatment equipment may still fall short of testing standards exacted by state port authorities. Much more work still needs to be done by governments to rectify the current situation, the report said.The meeting statement concluded; "We note that IMO [UN's International Maritime Organisation] decided not to reopen the G8 [Top seven economically performing countries and Russia] guidelines, but asked BLG 17 [IMO bulk liquid gases meeting No 17] to look into certification guidance on the G8 guideline with the aim of providing greater clarity on the operating conditions in which BWTS [Ballast Water Treatment System] are expected to operate.
"One hope is having existing ships, or those built before the entry into force of the convention and that retrofitting of type approved ballast water management systems should not be required until the next full five-year survey, rather than the next intermediate survey.Another worry is that enforcement and compliance will not be taken against the treatment system manufacturer, or test facility, but against shipowners who in good faith may have installed a system type approved by a government, said the report.
TOO little time has been allotted to retrofit tens of thousands of vessels with ballast water treatment systems - at US$1 million to $5 million per ship - to comply with United Nations standards because member states have taken too long to ratify the convention, thus drastically shortening implementation time.
Concerns over the impact on aquatic life, such as the introduction of invasive species when ballast water is taken from one area in the world and discharged in another, has been the source of the new UN regulatory regime."It will be very difficult to retrofit tens of thousands of ships within two or three years as the convention currently requires," said Masamichi Morooka, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), that represents 80 per cent of the world's merchant tonnage.This was the conclusion of representatives of leading associations of shipbuilders, classification societies and shipowners, which recently met in Busan for a meeting held by the Korean Register of Shipping and KOSHIPA, the national shipbuilders association.This will put unattainable demands on ship repair facilities, engineering capabilities and on the relatively small number of manufacturers that have developed suitable treatment equipment, reported London's Tanker Operator. If rules are not changed, a large number of treatment equipment costing billions of dollars may be required to be installed on ships with the prior knowledge that these systems may not always work reliably to the demanded biological efficacy, said the report.
Moreover, even sophisticated new treatment equipment may still fall short of testing standards exacted by state port authorities. Much more work still needs to be done by governments to rectify the current situation, the report said.The meeting statement concluded; "We note that IMO [UN's International Maritime Organisation] decided not to reopen the G8 [Top seven economically performing countries and Russia] guidelines, but asked BLG 17 [IMO bulk liquid gases meeting No 17] to look into certification guidance on the G8 guideline with the aim of providing greater clarity on the operating conditions in which BWTS [Ballast Water Treatment System] are expected to operate.
"One hope is having existing ships, or those built before the entry into force of the convention and that retrofitting of type approved ballast water management systems should not be required until the next full five-year survey, rather than the next intermediate survey.Another worry is that enforcement and compliance will not be taken against the treatment system manufacturer, or test facility, but against shipowners who in good faith may have installed a system type approved by a government, said the report.