IMO sets deadline for installation of ballast water treatment systems on vessels
Treatment of ballast water is essential to reduce the environmental impact of ships. For this reason, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has created the D2 Ballast Water Performance Standard, which will come into effect in September 2024.
There are still 40 months to go until the D2 comes into effect in September 2024. This may seem like a long Time, but a recent report by Clarksons Research warns that there are still 35,000 vessels that have not yet installed ballast water treatment systems (BWTS). This means that, to meet the deadline, shipyards around the world will have to carry out 875 installations of BWTS each month. According to some sources, this figure represents an increase of 700% compared to the average operations of recent years.
Thus, a real tsunami is looming over the entire naval sector, and it will undoubtedly have an impact on the delivery times of many shipyards.
An urgency for shipowners
As shipyard capacity is limited, shipowners who keep postponing the decision run the real risk of running into a major bottleneck when they finally decide to install ballast water treatment systems on their ships. This will increase equipment and installation costs, and perhaps some ship operators will be forced to choose lower-level shipyards and suppliers, with low-quality equipment and poorer after-sales service.
Before this kind of major modifications, shipowners must consider not only the cost of installation, but also the length of the stay in the shipyard, the cost of the trip and the profitability of the BWTS in the long term. Ship operators will thus avoid unpleasant surprises in the form of short- and medium-term repairs.
If they don’t want to risk being too late, ship operators should start installing BWTS. This is the only way to avoid a negative impact on the price, quality and delivery of their projects.
SYM Naval, specialist in ballast water treatment systems (BWTS)
To meet the urgency of BWTS installations, SYM Naval offers in its Mediterranean shipyard and its workshop in the Caribbean a global design and installation service of BWTS and other filtration solutions in compliance with IMO regulations.
Francisco Lage, CEO of SYM Naval, explains his action protocol in this type of project: “We carry out preliminary studies for each project. We analyse, design and install the most suitable system for each vessel, using the most advanced technology. Two examples are cleaning by oxidation or ultraviolet sterilisation. As an independent business, we do not represent any specific manufacturer or technology and we choose the most appropriate systems for each case. At SYM Naval we cover all the fields of an installation, saving downtime and speeding up execution”.
