IMO Archives - Page 20 of 25 - SHIP IP LTD

(Bloomberg Opinion) – The shipping industry is getting serious about cutting sulfur dioxide emissions. People who live along busy shipping lanes will see health benefits from reduced particulate emissions and a reduction in acid rain when new regulations came into force on Jan. 1. But the sulfur particles help offset some of the warming caused by powering the ships, so the rules may also increase the likelihood that rising sea levels caused by global warming leave those same populations without a home.

The new regulations from the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency responsible for ensuring safe and efficient shipping on clean oceans, allow for two ways of tackling the problem. Either ships must burn fuel with a sulfur content of no more than 0.5%, down from the 3.5% that is currently permitted outside of designated special emission-control areas. Or they must install scrubbers to remove sulfur from their exhaust.

The change targets the public-health impact of shipping, which is estimated to contribute 13% of total sulfur oxide emissions annually. It will slash the amount of sulfur dioxide from ships by 75%. Doing so will dramatically reduce premature deaths resulting from sulfate emissions from ships, according to a paper published in Nature Communications in 2018 by a team of researchers from U.S. institutions and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Most of the health benefits will be felt by communities in coastal regions of densely populated countries with busy ports or those on major sea-trade routes, especially in India and China. People living near coastlines in the U.S. or Europe won’t see a difference since ships operating in those areas already face far stricter limits that restrict them to burning fuel with a maximum sulfur level of 0.1%.

But these health benefits may come at a cost of actually worsening shipping’s climate impact. That’s because the sulfates from ships’ exhaust emissions contribute a cooling effect that will be lost with their removal.

Sulfur aerosols from ship exhaust reflect energy back into space. But they also help make clouds brighter, so they reflect more sunlight away from the Earth as well. Mikhail Sofiev, one of the authors of the Nature Communications paper, explained it like this:

Clouds with many small droplets are “whiter” — more reflective — than the clouds with few large droplets. Anthropogenic particles are small and numerous. They attract water and prompt formation of many small cloud droplets – and we get white-top cloud. Fewer sulfate particles reaching the cloud tops will reduce their albedo [ability to reflect] because the cloud droplets will become less numerous, bigger and therefore less reflective.

Most of the cooling effect from ship exhaust comes from this secondary impact on clouds, accounting for about 92% of the total. The new regulations will reduce that cooling impact from the world’s shipping fleet by 81%, according to the study. The net effect of the IMO 2020 rule on the climate impact is to increase the warming effect of all human activities by 3.8%.

Removing the sulfur from ship emissions exposes the climate effects of shipping. As James Corbett, another of the report’s authors, points out, “sulfate aerosols mask climate forcing, they don’t change it.”

The sulfur puzzle is just one piece of IMO’s efforts to clean up an industry that’s crucial to keeping global trade flowing, with more than 80% of global trade carried by sea. The Third IMO GHG Study, published in 2014, estimated that in 2012 international shipping accounted for about 2.2% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, and that such emissions could grow by between 50% and 250% by 2050.

In 2018, the London-based group adopted a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The goal is to cut the carbon intensity of international shipping “by at least 40% by 2030, pursuing efforts towards 70% by 2050, compared to 2008,” according to the document. It also aims to bring about a peak in total greenhouse gas emissions “as soon as possible” and reduce them by at least 50% by 2050 compared with 2008 levels. The overall emissions target is lower than the carbon intensity goal because the volume of shipping is forecast to increase over the next 30 years.

One proposal to help achieve all of this is to lower fuel consumption by introducing speed limits. Others include technical approaches such as mandatory power limits.

Where sulfur dioxide emissions are concerned, some of the negative climate impact may be offset by a parallel reduction in organic carbon and black carbon particles from ship exhaust, which have strongly warming properties. Low-sulfur fuels contain fewer black carbon particles and scrubbers remove them alongside the sulfur. They also have another important component: They are extremely expensive.

The higher cost of IMO 2020-compliant ship fuel and the fact there is no single worldwide specification for compliant fuel may in and of itself increase the incentive for ship operators and charterers to cut consumption, Corbett argues, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.

Until an industry-wide greenhouse gas strategy is adopted and implemented that may be the best hope we have.

Source: https://www.fleetowner.com/running-green/emissions/article/21119748/opinion-fighting-shipping-pollution-is-bad-for-the-planet

Yesterday MPA (Maritime and Port Authority) published a document for crew change stance easing, under the latest enhancement MPA has made to its crew change policy, for signing-on crew, shipping companies are requested to inform MPA of crew change plans 14 days in advance and confirm that the crew has been in quarantine for at least 14 days prior to entering Singapore with a negative Covid-19 test result. The crew also need a fit-to-travel medical certificate, issued by a doctor not more than 24 hours prior to departing the crew’s home country. For signing-off crew, seafarers will be required to have a fit-to-travel medical certificate and prove he/she has not gone ashore for the last 14 days and remains well. In order to minimize the risk, all the crew need to be transferred directly between the vessel and the point of arrival/departure. Additionally, MPA is also in the process of exploring a so-called halfway house concept, mostly likely offshore, to accommodate sign-on crew in Singapore while waiting for their vessels to arrive. Japanese owners have been looking at a similar concept, in a similar way. before crews working beyond their stipulated contracts must be repatriated, meaning governments have until June 15 to resolve the crew change issues that has seen around 150,000 seafarers waiting beyond their contracts to get home due to strict travel restrictions.

As earlier on 9th May IMO publishes framework of protocols for safe crew changes. The document describes protocols on how crews can join a ship, starting at their residence, and how a crew member can disembark and reach his home – often in a different countries. The document described how crews can join a ship, starting at their residence, and how a crew member can disembark and reach his home – often in a different country. The protocols for crew change and repatriation were drawn up by ICS, IAPH, BIMCO, IFSMA, INTERTANKO, P&I Clubs, CLIA, INTERCARGO, INTERMANAGER, IPTA, IMCA, INTERFERRY, FONASBA, ITF, and WSC. They also take account of input from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The IMO urges governments and national authorities to designate all professional seafarers and marine personnel as “key workers” and grant them with the necessary exemptions from the local rules that restrict movement, to allow them to join or leave the ships, among other things. The 61-page document is aimed at all the stakeholders in the process, including ship-owners, shipping companies, maritime administrations, customs, health authorities, airport authorities and several other organizations.

For the moment more than 5,000 people have signed the global petition Seafarers Matter aiming to draw the attention of the general public to the problems of the hundreds of thousands of seafarers who cannot leave or join ships due to the coronavirus pandemic as reported by Asia Shipping Media on 20 May 2020. The initiative started five days ago, spearheaded by the International Maritime Organization’s goodwill maritime ambassador for Bulgaria, Captain Andriyan Evtimov. The aim is to have the document signed online by at least the same number of people as that of the blocked crew – 150,000 and rising – and then send it to IMO member state governments with an appeal for immediate and urgent measures to facilitate the movement of seafaring personnel. Global trade unions have given governments and the shipping industry. To assist governments to put in place coordinated procedures to facilitate the safe movement of seafarers, the IMO has this month issued a 12-step plan to 174 member states, providing them with a roadmap to free seafarers from their Covid-19 lockdown and allow appropriate exemptions for them to join or leave ships. The 55-page roadmap has been advanced by a broad coalition of seafarer unions, and international shipping industry associations, with input from airline industry representatives, international organizations, and the insurance sector, to provide a comprehensive blueprint of how governments can facilitate crew changeovers and resolve safety concerns throughout the entire process.

Source: https://navis-odessa.com/news/the-ice-is-broken-singapore-eases-crew-change-rules-imo-comes-within-an-inch-of-protocols-for-crew-shifts-and-seafarer-s-global-petition-is-on-steam

As more industries acknowledge the role of climate change in economic growth and labour productivity, entire segments of the economy are taking steps to limit their environmental impact. This year, maritime shipping is facing new environmental regulations from the International Maritime Organization. Under the new regulations, known as the sulphur cap, all ships sailing the world’s oceans have to immediately reduce the amount of sulphur they release into the atmosphere. This regulation could potentially lead to huge costs for cargo shipowners and operators, as well as a rise in freight fees, globally.

Old ships, new rules

According to industry estimates provided by Shipping and Freight Resource, more than 90 percent of the global vessel fleet will have to have to rely on sulphur cap-compliant fuels after 1 January 2020, while the remaining lines will choose to invest in different technologies and operational investments such as scrubbers.

Shipowners anticipate that the sulphur cap may result in an increase in shipping fees globally, says Michael Borisov, Chief Investment Officer at Leon MFO Investments. This is due in part to the nature of the market for ships. Most cargo tankers and bulkers have a lifespan of 20-30 years.

“Many companies are relying on a scenario that involves other companies writing off old ships (due to the changes in regulation). Therefore, there will be a shortage of supply in the transportation market, and this will spur demand and raise freight fees,” Borisov says.

Annually, no more than 5 percent of the world’s cargo ships are being replaced, Borisov says, so in practical terms, the new regulations mean that companies will have to make changes to their ships currently at sea.

“A number of shipping firms have old fleets that require retrofitting or commissioning new ships with engines that burn cleaner fuels,” Borisov says.

These existing vessels should either switch to more expensive sulphur cap-compliant fuels or install scrubbers, which clean sulphur from ships’ exhaust.

Scrubber: the word of the year

The IMO regulation effectively launched a technological revolution in scrubber systems. Since the beginning of the year, the word ‘scrubbers’ dominated international newsfeeds in the industry. According to available data, more than 3,000 vessels had been equipped with scrubbers by the time the sulphur cap entered into force. Euronav reportedpurchasing its first ships with scrubbers; DHT, a US-listed owner of very large crude carriers, says it has saved USD 14.6m by using scrubbers on almost half its fleet; and Seanergy Maritime announced that it has completed the installation of scrubbers on five capesize vessels, or 50 percent of its owned fleet, with USD 14m investments overall.

“The costs of installing scrubbers are fixed, while the costs of compliant fuels are unpredictable and depend on oil prices, refinery pricing and even geopolitics,” says Borisov, adding that for ships that will be replaced in the near-to-medium term, both scrubbers and compliant fuels may look like temporary solutions for shipowners.

Going beyond compliance

This increase in the use of scrubbers, or Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS), as a cost-effective means to achieve compliance has led to a revival of the discussion around their reliability, however.

According to experts from Wärtsilä, one of the world’s leading suppliers of marine scrubber systems, the biggest concern with EGCS is corrosion of the system or the piping, which can result from poor design, construction, or installation. Wärtsilä has provided scrubbers for a variety of vessel types, from oil tankers to cruise ships to fishing vessels, and has made reliability a focus of its scrubber offerings. Material used in Wärtsilä scrubbers is subjected to extensive testing and research by third-party experts and in independent analyses.

“It is no accident that scrubber reliability is emerging or rather, re-emerging, as an issue now,” says Sigurd Jenssen, Director of Exhaust Gas Cleaning at Wärtsilä.

An unreliable scrubber system significantly compromises compliance with the sulphur cap.

“Safe return to port is always key, so you are not going to be penalised for sailing to the port you were going to if your scrubber stops working,” says Jenssen. “But whether you have to get it fixed straight away or can continue sailing until the spares are available and repairs arranged is up to the port state.”

Suppliers lacking substantial experience in the marine market may not be able to recognise the full consequences of their choices or the scale of corrosion that can occur. Beyond risking fines and detentions, a vessel that is non-compliant due to a faulty scrubber might also tarnish the reputation of its parent company and other vessels in the fleet. According to       the Marine and Port Authority of Singapore, previous non-compliance will be part of the risk profiling that will be used to determine which vessels are subject to inspection when they arrive at port.

“The risk and costs associated with non-compliance are extremely high. When we look at the competitive landscape for scrubbers, we see several companies that have no service network at all, many who are newcomers to the marine world and actually none that have a network comparable to ours,” says Jan Othman, Director of Exhaust Treatment at Wärtsilä.

Wärtsilä has more than 10 years of experience in designing scrubbers and has installed its solutions on a variety of vessel types, from oil tankers to cruise ships, from fishing vessels to cable layers. The company has tested its materials itself and conducted extensive research with third-party experts, as well as confirming its selections against independent analysis.

Wärtsilä is also incorporating the latest technological developments into its EGCS. The system’s automation and control system is being developed to enable even better cybersecurity and easier integration for big data functions. A new standard control system will be able to connect to Wärtsilä’s Data Collection Unit, an integrated data bridge that collates sensor readings from multiple sources on the ship. This data is then fed back to Wärtsilä to help both optimise and improve a vessel’s automation and control systems on both current and future journeys.

These developments provide yet another way to assist shipowners in reducing both fuel costs and emissions, making progress on the journey to a Smart Marine Ecosystem.

Source:
https://www.wartsila.com/twentyfour7/environment/silent-revolution-at-sea-imo-sulphur-cap-2020-regulations-set-to-change-maritime-shipping

As more and more suppliers arrange search parties [pun for: conducting cost-benefits analysis], significant time and costs associated with shipping is seldom recovered, and the future looks grim for suppliers who have not evaluated onshoring options. In fact, the supply chain impact may be significant as the maritime industry prepares for one of the most significant changes in its recent history: IMO 2020 rules that will be met with escalating costs and operational challenges.

What is IMO 2020? What is the impact?

Starting January 1, 2020, all ships operating in the open sea must comply with stricter environmental regulation set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO 2020), aiming to reduce sulphur oxide emissions from sea vessels by 85%.

Operational challenges will be considerable, and the costs astronomical, with a total global impact in excess of $1 trillion over five years, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics estimates.

While the onus for compliance falls on carriers, price volatility will continue with anticipated service disruptions as thousands of ships are taken out of the market to fit equipment called scrubbers (or a switch to low-sulfur fuel or use of liquidized natural gas). In fact, overall prices of container transportation and freight rates have already increased significantly, including one indicator—the Baltic Dry Index—that surged in September to its highest since November 2010.

Fleets will consider factors such as the age of their vessels, trading routes and locational availability of the various fuel options. However, with concerns around demand outstripping supply, fuel costs will increase along logistics timelines and availability of shipping. These costs and implications will be passed down to those shipping materials.

What’s the best option for shippers today?

We would be remiss to say that there are no benefits to offshoring, but the concept became too common practice. Many companies moved production to low-cost countries, worried that competitors would gain a cost advantage; fixating on a component’s unit price rather the total cost of ownership, which oftentimes results in a 20% to 30% miscalculation of actual offshoring costs. Some of the most commonly cited costs include inventory carrying costs, shipping, travel expenses and communications issues, rising offshore wages, as well as intellectual property risks.

Today, many U.S. manufacturers are reevaluating production and sourcing locations and are realizing major benefits of reshoring for large volume of high-quality products.

In the molded rubber category, an uptick in reshoring began years ago with motivations tied to quality standards and reducing supply chain exposure. This resurgence was largely due to an unbalanced increase in production costs with a steady, and even declining standard for quality. For example, from 2000 to 2016, indexed manufacturing labor costs increased 400% in China, compared to only 2% in the U.S.

In the last year, however, macro trends, trade war realities and regulations have further made the case clear for onshoring across industries, as OEMs realize the total costs of ownership of Made in USA components to be lower on average and declining.

Because of this—and impending IMO 2020 compliance—the supplier and OEM partnership will become more important than ever before, and companies that can source a local supplier will gain the advantage.

What to look for in a parts supplier?

When a shipment isn’t crossing international borders or taking a long voyage over water, logistics costs are lower, far less complex and ensure a higher confidence of on-time delivery.

Whether doing business locally or across borders, when producing or assembling parts, OEMs should turn to suppliers that can truly address logistical gaps and overall manufacturability through design enhancements, advanced product quality planning and material offsets. Time to market can be reduced by leveraging fast prototyping, development and production, with secondary operations. For example, manufacturers often find it easier and more cost-effective for part suppliers to perform various assembly operations. This can range from simple packaging of various components to highly automated cells for part assembly and boxing.

Along with automated production processes, OEMs should source vertically integrated suppliers that work as true partners, from conception to commercialization. If you must continue to do business with foreign manufacturers, make sure they understand the pace needed to launch new products, process efficiency techniques, like design for manufacturability, and can produce parts to exacting specifications. Don’t sacrifice quality or reliability, and never allow maritime industry changes to delay shipping or increase costs for parts that can be made domestically.

Steve Anton is president of Rahco Rubber Inc., a vertically integrated manufacturer of custom-engineered, precision molded rubber components and sealing solutions.

Source:
https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/22028676/lost-at-sea-the-impact-of-new-maritime-trade-regulations