Ship owners face €77.5bn bill over ballast change
A binding convention drawn up by the International Maritime Organisation requires shipping lines to retrofit 60,000 vessels with gear that kills unwelcome organisms and costs from $200,000 (€155,000) for an offshore-supply craft to $4m (€3.1m) for an oil tanker.
The rules add to pressure on margins at shipping companies from Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd and Denmark’s Maersk to Evergreen Marine of Taiwan, which all posted tumbling third-quarter earnings.
