ABS and MARIC Pen Partnership Agreement for Ship Efficiency

The ABS-MARIC agreement is intended to improve offshore and marine sector operational efficiency and environmental performance.

Classification society ABS Friday announced that it has signed an strategic cooperation agreement with the Marine Design & Research Institute of China (MARIC) to increase collaboration on offshore and marine sector operational efficiency and environmental performance.

Under the agreement, ABS and MARIC will work together on technical support, classification, certification, training, and statutory guidance intended for merchant vessels and offshore units.

ABS says it will also be responsible for assessing compliance with ABS Rules, Guides and statutory regulations.

"This Agreement aligns the core competencies of ABS and MARIC and allows us to work together on designs that meet environmental regulations and technology trends," said Howard Fireman, ABS Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

"Leveraging technologies such as CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), techno economic evaluation, and performance data analysis, we will be able to help industry effect improvements in energy efficiency and environmental compliance."

The agreement is said to enable opportunities for joint development projects in areas such as energy efficiency, environmental performance, techno economic evaluation, harsh environment operations, novel design concepts, and technology performance assessment.

"We value this cooperation agreement with ABS as a great opportunity to pursue state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and intellectual technologies together to our mutual benefit," said Wenhua Xing, MARIC President.

In October, ABS announced the release of the "world's first" guide for SOx scrubber ready vessels.