Common sense prevails in IMO committee

OF ALL recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) pieces of legislation, the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention has probably been the most contentious.

The global shipping industry expects to have to invest around US$100 billion in new ballast water treatment systems (BWMS) once the BWM Convention enters into force, probably during 2016.

The industry fully supports the convention's objectives and the standards that governments have set for killing unwanted marine micro-organisms that can be transported in ships' ballast water.