Ten ships out of over 100 checked have been found to be in breach of new regulations on ship pollution introduced in Shanghai as of April 1st, the Shanghai Daily reports citing the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration officials.
At the end of last year, China said that eleven key ports will be allowed to impose requirements for fuel burned at berth as early as January 1, 2016.
The designated ports are Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhujiang, Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Suzhou, Nantong, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Huanghua.
Shanghai was the first to introduce the measures which aim to cut the PM2.5 pollution in Shanghai and its neighboring cities by 10 percent by requiring vessels berthing at major docks to use low-sulfur fuel.
Based on the authority’s findings, during the inspections conducted in April and May, covering some 108 ships, 37 vessels were found to be polluting the air along the emission-controlled river sections and 10 failed to use low-sulfur oil while berthing at local ports.
The ships that were found not be compliant with the new regulations got off with a warning which is asking them to switch to low-sulfur fuel or upgrade equipment to lower their emissions, the daily said.
China has designated three areas as emission control areas (ECA), the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Sea, where ships will be obliged to use fuel containing less than 0.5% sulphur from January 1, 2019.
The move comes as the country, which is the home of seven out of ten of the world’s busiest ports, comes to grips with ship pollution. Since Chinese port cities are some of the most densely populated in the world and about 30 percent of the world’s containers pass through these ports, air pollution from ships and port activities contribute to high public health risks.
World Maritime News Staff