South Korean ballast water management system (BWMS) manufacturer Techcross received a large number of orders in January alone in 2019, which will be the first year when the IMO regulation comes into effect.
The orders won last month include a total of 242 units for 159 vessels and reflect a rebound in the shipbuilding industry, according to Techcross.
The company said that it was continuously winning BWMS orders from world’s major shipping companies including Arklow Shipping which signed the contract with Techcross office in Europe for a total 51 vessels.
As explained, shipowners facing the new regulations are asked to make quick decisions on the shipboard ballast water treatment system and they are seeking manufacturers such as Techcross.
The company said it has seen product inquiries steadily increasing since the end of last year. With this trend reflected in the market, Techcross received orders for 183 units — 123 vessels — only from the existing fleets, which specifically include 19 bulk carriers from Marmaras Navigation, 11 bulk carriers from Eastern Mediterranean Maritime and 10 bulk carriers from Laskaridis Shipping.
Especially, owners equipped with Electro-Cleen System (ECS) in their newly built ships have started to install ECS on their existing vessels, further raising expectations for exceeding the company’s 2019 sales goal.
In order to deal with the surging orders, Techcross has been aligning the internal organization and reorganizing business process, making investments to expand the production facilities, and establishing cooperation with its partner companies.
In addition, the company strengthened the engineering capacity to provide turnkey solutions and built a global network through AS service stations and sales offices located in Houston in the US, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Quingdao in China, Fukuyama in Japan, Singapore and Cyprus.
“Although we had difficult times in the past two or three years due to the lack of orders, we continued our investments in R&D of ballast water treatment systems and recruiting and training talented employees with a long-term vision in preparation for the IMO regulations,” Jay Lee, Sales Director and the Head of Sales, Techcross, commented.
“As we are ready with the quick customer response and mass production system, we are expecting a rapid growth in the earnings from 2019,” Lee added.
In June 2018, the US Coast Guard granted its Type Approval to Techcross ECS, the seventh BWTS system to receive this approval.