In October 2018, China ratified International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention which came into force in September of 2017. The BWM Convention aims to prevent the spread of harmful and invasive aquatic species from one region to another by establishing standards and introducing global regulations to control ships' ballast water and sediments.

To ensure safety and stability, ships in international traffic take ballast water onboard and discharge it into the sea during voyages. Untreated ballast water can contain aquatic  invasive organisms and species and transfer them to the local ecosystem with devastating consequences.

From January 22 this year, the BWM Convention will officially come into force in China. In order to better implement the IMO's convention along with the other 78 countries, China will have a lot to do.

The research on the control of invasive species from ballast water in China started relatively late. At present, only a few legal documents, such as Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and Frontier Health and Quarantine Law of the People's Republic of China, have related general requirements. 

In 2008, China undertook the task of drafting standards for ballast water related industry and it is expected that China will introduce industry standards for ballast water management in 2019.

A big problem for implementing the BWM Convention for all countries is that different countries have different legislative requirements and some regional rules are inconsistent with global conventions. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is separately implementing regulations that are stricter than IMO's BWM Convention. The IMO requires that the living organisms in the ballast water will not be able to replicate after treatment. For USCG's requirement, there will be no living organisms after ballast water treatment. 

Under this circumstance, ships that invest a lot of money to install ballast water treatment devices in the early stage may not be able to operate in the U.S. waters. It will greatly frustrate the enthusiasm of ship owners and will also lead many international shipping organizations and some ship owners to take a wait-and-see attitude towards IMO's Convention. So, it is urgent for IMO and the involved states to develop an internationally accepted industry standard for shipping practitioners.

Driven by BWM Convention, the market for ballast water equipment is predicted to be 18 billion to 28 billion U.S. dollars. During the peak installation years from 2019 to 2026, around 30,000 to 40,000 ballast water management systems will be installed on maritime vessels. In areas like equipment, engineering, testing laboratories, installation and repair services, companies from the U.S., Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, the United Arab Emirates have strong competitiveness and advantages. 

In the segment of servicing the equipment, China has the opportunity to grab the market share. Ship owners have strong demand for the resupply of parts and materials for ballast water treatment systems in areas near dry docks. Now, nearly 70 percent of dry dock work is conducted in China and this gives Chinese companies a natural advantage in this sector.

In 2017, China's Sunrui Marine Environment Engineering received a Ballast Water Management System type approval certificate from the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Center. It is the fourth certificate issued by USCG. It means Chinese enterprises have the ability to meet the strict requirements in this area. 

In international negotiations on ballast water conventions and related documents, countries with strong technical support occupy a leading position and have more voice. To better implement the IMO's BWM Convention and to promote ballast water management of domestic ships, it is important for China to further increase investment to improve the scientific research level in this field in the next few years.