- Obtaining the the 1st certificate enables the country

to gain an advantage in the $47 billions worth of market -

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF; Minister Kim, Young-Choon) stated that ballast water treatment system of Techcross Inc., called ECS, obtained USCG-type Approval Certificate on June 5, 2018. 

The good news would encourage domestic industry to promote sales as it reaches POSIDONIA 2018, the mega event in international shipping exhibition held in Greece (June 4–8).

Ballast water treatment system removes and destroys biologial organisms from ballast water satisfying the level of its international standards. Entry into effect of Ballast Water Management Convention by the IMO on September 8, 2017 forced all vessels to be equipped with the system within the next 7 years. The market scale of the system will approximately increase to USD 47 billions for the grace period until 2024.

Besides this convention, the US has enforced regulations to obligate installation of the equipment since 2014 to protect its marine environment. Under the act, vessels wishing to enter any ports in the US must be equipped with USCG-type-approved management system.

While the USCG-type Approval Certificate shows similarity in criteria with the IMO, its test consists of more complicated and a higher level stages to be qualified including land-based test, trial operation and servicing test. This difficulty creates only 6 products approved in the world.

The test is administered by independent institutes exclusively assigned by the USCG (United States Coast Guard). In Korea, KR (Korean Register of Shipping) became the third-accredited institute in the world in 2015 to facilitate application of domestic businesses for USCG-type Approval Certificate.

The MOF has fully engaged in promotion of the system as a new cash-cow by enactment & amendment of Ballast Water Management Act, building facility for land-based test and hosting international forums. In particular, the Ministry provided support for R&D to successfully develop a brand-new technique fitting for the 2-step standards which have 1,000-time-greater level than the current US ones.

Director General Oh, Woon-yul of Maritime Affairs and Safety Policy Bureau of the MOF expressed his commitment that “private-public cooperation drove this remarkable result defying serious trouble in ballast water management industry mainly caused by the slump of the shipping and shipbuilding industry. The MOF is determined to spare no efforts to support the domestic industry for a potential global leader”.

Meanwhile, Samsung Heavy Industries, Co. Ltd. is about to obtain the USCG-type Approval Certificate for its own ballast water treatment system as the final step is unfolded toward the second-approved system in Korea. Also, as the equipment of Panasia Co. Ltd. will be approved within this year, Korea is expected to eclipse global counterparts in the number of the USCG-type Approved management system.