Finnish maritime supplier Wärtsilä aims to work closer with shipyards to ease retrofitting of Ballast Water Management systems (BMWS).
The company is in the process of signing agreements with a number of major shipyards, the latest being Keppel Shipyard Ltd (KSL) of Singapore. »T[ds_preview]he agreements are intended to establish cooperation and communication between the parties in relation to the International Maritime Organization‘s (IMO) Convention for Ballast Water Management, which is due to enter into force in September of this year«, Wärtsilä said in a statement today.
The shared goal of the parties is to provide ship owners and operators with all necessary information and assistance concerning BWMS. Together, the parties can provide full engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) capabilities, as relevant to each customer‘s requirements, it was added. The shipyards, in addition, provide the dry docking facilities and the necessary installation resources. Because of the relatively short period of time before the regulations enter into force, the retrofitting market is expected to be extremely active.
»Wärtsilä has taken a proactive approach to preparing for the BWM convention regulations taking effect, and consequently we are very well placed to aid customers as they prepare to meet these upcoming requirements. We are pleased to cooperate with the major shipyards, such as Keppel Shipyard Ltd, since by working together we can provide a valuable service to ship owners in complying with the new regulations,« says Markus Ljungkvist, General Manager, Project Sales, Wärtsilä Services.
Wärtsilä currently has wholly owned BWMS production facilities in the UK and China, as well as manufacturing agreements with the China based companies COSCO Weihai and CSSC JiuJiang.
