Murky waters ahead for ballast water market
Published on by Edyta Bednorz, Global Water Intelligence - Brand Marketing Executive in Business
Water treatment companies are hoping the ratification of an incoming global ballast water treatment standard will spur investment. Not all shipowners are convinced by the new standard, however.
The multi-billion dollar ballast water treatment market is close to getting a shot in the arm with the ratification of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) treatment standard.
Once it is approved by countries representing 35% of world merchant shipping tonnage, the IMO standards will take 12 months to come into force, at which time shipowners are expected to increase the pace at which they purchase systems. Currently, 43 countries representing 32.54% of tonnage have already signed up. The market for ballast water treatment systems is already growing: 4,000 ballast water treatment systems were installed in December, up from 1,000 in autumn 2013. "2015 is just going to be incrementally bigger in sales," Hyde Marine VP John Platz told GWI.
To outfit the 60,000 plus vessels which Platz expects will require ballast water treatment systems over the next six to eight years, he predicts that annual system sales could be up to 15,000 units. Nevertheless, some industry sources have indicated that the more stringent US Coast Guard (USCG) approval process could prove the more crucial decider, despite the limited number of assessors available to test treatment technologies. Eight systems are already in the process of being tested with a view to becoming certified by the USCG. More than 40 others will have to use five year temporary USCG approvals until they can enter the testing queue and receive final USCG type approval. Companies such Trojan Marinex, Hyde Marine (a subsidiary of Calgon Carbon),and Evoqua (formerly Siemens Water) have long eyed the international ballast water treatment market. Evoqua and Hyde Marine will begin USCG testing in the spring of 2015, and Trojan hopes to use the "existing data clause" to grandfather in testing already done to USCG standards. Bottlenecks in testing schedules could complicate the roll-out of treatment technologies, meanwhile, as roughly 50 systems have turned to the temporary USCG "alternate management systems" designation to buy precious time. "If a supplier has AMS, there's no guarantee that they will eventually receive US Coast Guard type approval," Trojan Marinex ballast water market manager Jim Cosman told GWI. DNV GL and NSF International are the only two independent laboratories in the world which can test ballast water treatment technologies to USCG standards. "What basically all of them have to do now is to repeat the test according to the US Coast Guard requirements," Ingrid Sigvaldsen of DNV GL told GWI. "The US Coast Guard requirement is viewed as the golden standard," she said. Trojan's Cosman estimates that at least half of what he pegs as a 50,000-ship market will require the USCG type approval. Though Sigvaldsen declined to tell GWI which technologies are close to USCG type approval, she did say at least three could be expected to receive the green light in 2015. "The US Coast Guard's goal is to have the first system approved by 2015," she told GWI.