The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) on Thursday (9 January) said it has joined 47 governments in a joint submission to the final round of negotiations at the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) to adopt a maritime greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pricing mechanism to achieve net zero GHG emissions from international shipping by 2050. 

The joint text is supported by major shipping nations such as Greece, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom, the world’s largest flag States including Bahamas, Liberia, Marshall Islands and Panama, all EU States (and the European Commission), other African countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, plus Small Island Developing States from the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The joint submission by governments sets out convergent regulatory text for amendments to the IMO MARPOL Convention, which will require shipping companies operating ships on international voyages to make GHG contributions per tonne of CO2e emitted to a new “IMO GHG Strategy Implementation Fund”.

ICS said the key purpose of this mandatory GHG charge will be to reduce the cost gap between zero/near-zero GHG emission (ZNZ) fuels such as green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen and conventional bunker fuels, to incentivise the accelerated uptake of green energy sources. 

Revenue generated will be used to reward the production and uptake of ZNZ marine fuels, whilst also providing billions of US dollars annually to support the maritime GHG reduction efforts of developing countries.

International Chamber of Shipping Secretary General, Guy Platten, said: “The industry fully supports the adoption by IMO of a GHG pricing mechanism for global application to shipping.”

“The joint text put forward by this broad coalition is a pragmatic solution and the most effective way to incentivise a rapid energy transition in shipping to achieve the agreed IMO goal of net zero emissions by or close to 2050.”

“We are very pleased that such a large and diverse group of nations now firmly supports a common approach to maritime carbon charging. This proposed joint text has been hard fought and is broadly based on ideas which ICS has been advocating for the past ten years.

“While a large number of governments now support a universal flat rate GHG contribution by ships – or something similar – a minority of governments continue to have concerns. Working in co-operation with all IMO Member States we will do our best to allay such concerns during the final stages of these critical negotiations about regulatory text.”

This mature regulatory proposal will be considered by a critical IMO meeting in February – in the week of 17 February 2025 at ISWG-GHG 18. 

If the MARPOL amendments are approved by IMO in April 2025, they should enter into force globally in early 2027, with the collection of annual GHG contributions from ships commencing in 2028.

Note: The joint proposal to IMO for a maritime GHG emissions pricing mechanism can be found here.

Photo credit: International Maritime Organization
Published: 10 January, 2025

Filtration company LiqTech International on Thursday (25 July) said it has entered into a partnership agreement with and Danbee Marine, a South Korean-based maritime representative to the shipping industry, to market LiqTech's marine scrubber water treatment solutions within South Korea.

Established in 2009, Danbee Marine, has been focused on delivering fuel treatment chemicals to reduce fuel consumption and emissions within the Korean maritime market. 

“Danbee Marine has a strong presence and foothold with major ship owners and shipyards with a deep insight into marine engineering and equipment. The addition of LiqTech's compact and efficient marine scrubber water treatment system offering is a synergistic extension of their existing product offerings,” LiqTech said in a statement. 

According to LiqTech, its marine scrubber water treatment system for both closed-loop and hybrid scrubbers “outperforms discharge limits regulated by the IMO Marpol VI”. 

LiqTech's solutions remove unburned fuel oil, soot particles, ash, and heavy metals from marine scrubber wastewater and take an active role in reducing world pollution. 

Since LiqTech's first marine installations in 2017, the company has successfully installed retrofit and new-build marine scrubber water treatment systems on more than 170 large commercial ships for many global ship owners. 

“Furthermore, ship owners have gained tremendous fuel savings leveraging LiqTech's water treatment units, providing for enhanced ROI,” the firm said. 

“We are excited to expand our presence in the Korean ship building market through this partnership agreement with Danbee Marine who has a strong network in the South Korea marine market,” said Fei Chen, CEO of LiqTech International. 

“As the second largest ship building market in the world, we have had a presence with a small number of key customers, including Hyundai Merchant Marine over the years, but have lacked the large-scale presence across a wide variety of ship builders that Danbee can provide.”

“I look forward to working with the capable team at Danbee to deliver our advanced and proven marine scrubber water treatment solutions to help ship owners and ship builders in South Korea fulfil regulatory requirements.”

Photo credit: Felix Fuchs on Unsplash
Published: 29 July, 2024

Notices were published on the Government Gazette on Friday (21 June) regarding scheduled annual meetings for two Xihe Holdings subsidiaries Xin Chun Shipping (Pte) Ltd and Xin Dun Shipping (Pte) Ltd.

Annual general meetings for Xin Chun Shipping are to be held on 11 July at the following times:

For the company: 10.00 am
For the creditors: 11.00 am 

Annual general meeting for Xin Dun Shipping are to be held on 9 July at the following times:

For the company: 10.00 am
For the creditors: 11.00 am

AGENDA

1. To receive an update on the liquidation.
2. To receive an account of the Liquidators’ acts and dealings, and of the conduct of the winding up.

The following are the details of the liquidator:

Ho May Kee
Liquidator
c/o 8 Marina View
#40-04/05 Asia Square Tower 1
Singapore 018960

Xihe Holdings Pte Ltd and its subsidiaries are owned by the Lim family, who are also the owners of the embattled Hin Leong Trading.

Related: JMs: First creditors meeting of Xihe Holdings subsidiaries to be held in January 2021

Photo credit: Benjamin-Child
Published: 24 June, 2024