A majority of ballast water management system (BWMS) installations are slated to take place in 2022 in line with requirement deadlines under the Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM Convention), presenting potential supply and bottleneck challenges according to classification society ClassNK.
The classification society in September 2018 analyzed the retrofitting status of BWMS on its registered ships and confirmed that installation deadlines based on the BWM Convention for many of them are highly concentrated in the year 2022.
Upon reviewing the latest data now one year later in 2019, ClassNK confirmed that installation deadlines for many of its registered ships are still concentrated in 2022.
As of the end of August 2019, 7,124 of the 9,097 ships registered with ClassNK are obligated to install BWMS in accordance with the BWM Convention. Of this amount, 2,606 ships have completed the installation, leaving 4,518 ships that still require attention. Although the number of ships without BWMS has decreased by 882 within one year, the installation deadline for these ships remains largely concentrated in 2022.
With this in mind, ClassNK is recommending that those who have not yet installed BWMS on their vessels move to do so well in advance to avoid difficulties that are to be expected if the majority of owners and operators waits until 2022.