So far, the Guidelines on the Installation of Ballast Water Treatment Systems have played a role in publicizing information on our technical standards, prior to the entry into force of the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship's Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (hereinafter referred to as "convention"), by prescribing technical requirements concerning installation of the Ballast Water Management System and the type-approval. With the convention entering into force on 8 September 2017, however, the Guidelines will become ineffective since the stipulations are incorporated into the newly established Rules for Ballast Water Management Installations and the revised relevant rules of ClassNK.

The Class Notation "BWTS" (hereinafter referred to as "BWTS") stated in the Guidelines is a voluntary Class Notation made based on an owner's application, which is expected to serve as an indication that Ballast Water Management System installed before the convention's effective date is well-maintained to be operable. After the convention enters into force, we would appreciate it if you could understand that we take the procedure to deal with the BWTS as below. Also, the Installations Character "BWM" is affixed to the ships which complete the Initial Survey of the convention.

(1) The already given BWTS can be maintained. For ships affixed the BWTS with only D-1 regulation (Ballast Water Exchange Standard) applied in the statutory certificate, the statutory certificate is changed to include D-2 regulation application by the next periodical survey of the convention.
(2) For ships under construction which have already applied for the BWTS, the application is changed to D-2 regulation, the statutory certificate including D-2 regulation application is issued, and the Installations Character "BWM" is granted. Accordingly, necessary changes are to be made to the application forms of Classification Survey during Construction; we would appreciate it if you submitted an application for the change.

(To be continued)