The “huge cost of US type-approvals” was blamed by one ballast water management system (BWMS) manufacturer for pulling out of the market last year. A source at the company, which asked not to be identified, told BWTT in November that those costs, together with low prices and difficulties in forecasting future demand, had led it to shelve its marketing and development work.
The company offers two different technologies and holds IMO approval for one of them. It had anticipated receiving IMO approval for the other by the end of the year and had been demonstrating its equipment at the Nor-Shipping exhibition in June last year, so the decision reflected developments during the closing months of the year.
Continuing delays in ratifying IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention (BWMC) almost certainly played a part, commented one market observer to BWTT, recalling a similar move a year ago and reported in last year’s edition. At that time, German manufacturer RWO had stopped marketing its ballast water management system, CleanBallast, preferring instead to promote its core products.
That remains its position now: The system is not currently listed on its website’s home page but details can still be found there via a search engine and it is listed in the directory section of this edition of BWTT.
These are just two examples of a wider concern. Speaking last year, Kjeld Dittmann, chairman of the European Ships and Maritime Equipment Association (SEA Europe), which represents European shipyards and equipment manufacturers, said that confusion and delays around environmental regulations are reducing investment in ballast water treatment solutions and other environmental innovations.
Although Europe’s maritime technology sector “is leading the world in innovative solutions to environmental challenges,” he said, these delays represent “a significant risk for our sector.” What he saw as “the lack of transparency and clarity” about enacting and enforcing regulations puts jobs and investments at risk, he said. “Europe needs to show political leadership and not be too shy to enforce those measures, particularly when our own industry has stuck its neck out to develop the green technology solutions,” he said.
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