Asia/Pacific News
Uncertainty Over India's Position on IMO2020 Compliance Lingers
Shipowners and operators remain unclear over India's position on IMO2020 compliance despite the country's regulator of shipping, DG shipping, taking an apparently clear stance on the matter.
The latest confusion centres around the use of scrubbers.
Major ports within the country are reported to have been receiving enquiries as to whether use of the tech to comply with the upcoming global 0.50% sulfur cap on marine fuel will be permitted within the country's territorial waters.
Scrubbers have long been accepted as a compliance route as part of IMO's sulfur regs framework, MARPOL Annex VI, and this remains the case today unless there are additional local regulations stating otherwise.
A report by The Hindu Business Line Thursday suggested uncertainty over India's position stems from the fact that Singapore had banned the use of open-loop scrubbers and that India had yet to develop its national policy on the matter.
This follows reports in early September that India would not enforce the upcoming cap for vessels operating in its domestic trade, a position it has since seemingly backtracked on.
However, in its Engineering Circular 2 of 2019 dated August 28, 2019, DG Shipping clearly states that the 0.50% sulfur rule will apply to "all ships irrespective of trading area viz. international and Domestic."
The Circular also explicitly states that ships may meet the SOx requirements by using approved equivalent methods of compliance including scrubbers.
As a MARPOL Annex VI signatory India is expected to enforce the new sulfur rules without exception.
