Rush of Orders for Ballast Water Treatment Systems

During a busy one week period in late October, Hyde Marine (USA) received orders for six Hyde GUARDIAN™ ballast water treatment systems from customers in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Five systems for new construction projects range in capacity from 100 m3/hr to 250 m3/hr and will be installed on offshore supply vessels and a deep water survey vessel. One 60 m3/hr capacity system will be delivered for retrofit on a European based marine research vessel. All systems will be delivered before February 2010.

The IMO Type Approved Hyde GUARDIAN™ offers a compact, modular design, low power consumption scaled according to capacity, and simple, automatic operation. These advantages make it a technically attractive and cost effective solution for workboats, mega-yachts, research vessels, all types of small and medium size commercial ships, as well as smaller military craft. The Hyde GUARDIAN™ can be adapted to fit the available space on an existing vessel or can be supplied as a compact 100% skid mounted package.

Tom Mackey, Hyde’s Chairman, stated “Ships with smaller volumes of ballast water will be the first ones who must comply with coming regulations. These early adopters are an indication that ship owners and yards now recognize that the IMO BWM Convention will soon be ratified and that new buildings need to install IMO Type Approved BWT systems.”

During MEPC 59 in London in July 2009, the IMO determined that sufficient type approved technologies are currently available for ships constructed in 2010 and, therefore, no changes to Assembly Resolution A.1005(25) are needed. This should help to speed the ratification and implementation of the Ballast Water Management Convention.