Ships in a bottleneck: Flood of orders cause for concern

   The Japanese classification society ClassNK has expressed concern about the large numbers of shipowners planning to retrofit ships with ballast water management systems in a narrow time window in order to comply with the International Maritime Organization’s Ballast Water Management Convention.
   ClassNK said, “As of the end of August 2018, there are 7,315 ships on the ClassNK register that are obligated to install BWMS in compliance with the BWM Convention. Of this amount, 1,915 ships have completed the installation, leaving 5,400 ships that still require attention.”
   Many are planning to do so in 2022, ClassNK said.

   “The distribution of BWMS installation deadlines in line with the BWM Convention is as follows: 92 ships by 2019; 662 ships by 2020; 795 ships by 2021; 2,832 ships by 2022; 558 ships by 2023; and 461 ships by 2024, with the majority being highly concentrated in 2022,” ClassNK said.
   “As difficulties are expected in the installation of BWMS if everyone around the world waits until 2022, ClassNK recommends installing early.”