China – Establishment of Emission Control Areas (ECA) (No.10)
Members are kindly requested to refer to the recent Japan P&I News No.919 dated 11 September 2017. We have obtained an update from Huatai Insurance Agency & Consultant Services Ltd., our correspondent in Beijing, China.
- Yangtze River ECA
- In addition to implementation of the low sulphur fuel requirement as from 1 September 2017 at all ports in Zhejiang ECA, Jiangsu Maritime Safety Agency (which has jurisdiction over the northern part of Yangtze River ECA) issued a notice on 12 September 2017 to announce that such low sulphur fuel requirement was implemented on 1 September 2017 at all ports in Jiangsu ECA, too. This means that such low sulphur requirement has now been implemented at all ports in Yangtze River ECA since 1 September 2017.
In consideration of the preparatory time period necessary for ships to cope with the requirement, ships berthing at ports within Jiangsu ECA which violate the above requirement are subject to warning education and correction of breaches for the first four months since the implementation date of this notice (1 September 2017), except for those ships berthing at Nanjing and Nantong ports area.
In this connection, we would like to call the Members’ special attention to the grace period of 2 months as from 1 September given for Zhejiang ECA different from that for Jiangsu ECA.
- Schedule of implementation of the low sulphur fuel requirement in ECA
- In order for owners to better understand the implementation of low sulphur fuel requirement within Bohai-rim waters ECA, Yangtze River Delta ECA and Pearl River Delta ECA, we hereby updated below timetable in line with the local authority’s latest requirements for your kind reference:
Time | Sulphur Content Requirement | Applicable Area / Time Period |
Until 31.12.2017 | ≦ 0.5% m/m | Geographical area: Key ports in Pearl Delta ECA & Bohai-rim ECA Time period: Berthing period excluding 1 hour after berthing & 1 hour before departure |
From 1.9.2017 to 31.12.2018 | ≦ 0.5% m/m | Geographical area: All ports in Yangtze River Delta ECA Time period: Berthing period excluding 1 hour after berthing & 1 hour before departure |
From 1.1.2018 to 31.12.2018 | ≦ 0.5% m/m | Geographical area: All ports in 3 ECAs (Bohai-rim, Yangtze River & Pearl River) Time period: Berthing period excluding 1 hour after berthing & 1 hour before departure |
From 1.1.2019 to 31.12.2019 | ≦ 0.5% m/m | Geographical area: Whole areas of 3 ECAs Time period: Whole period when the ship is in the ECAs |