Verifavia Shipping doubles IHM maintenance fleet from 600 to 1,300 in just one week, ahead of EU SRR IHM deadline

Verifavia Shipping provides Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) with Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) maintenance services for around 350 vessels in the BSM fleet. This, along with several other contracts, brings Verifavia Shipping’s total IHM Maintenance fleet to almost 1,300 vessels.

This contract follows the launch of Verifavia’s new “3-Way Plug & Play” IHM Maintenance Dashboard, a platform which provides efficient and continuous maintenance of IHM reports. The dashboard is the industry’s leading online platform providing shipowners, superintendents, vessels, and even Port State Control (PSC) and Classification Societies with live access to the IHM maintenance status of every vessel.

From 31^st December 2020, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) will be extended to cover all EU-flagged ships, as well as ships trading under the flag of a third country, that call at an EU port or anchorage. The regulation restricts or prohibits the use of hazardous materials onboard vessels and requires ships to carry a certified and maintained IHM which specifies the location and quantities of those materials.

Maintenance involves ensuring the IHM is continuously updated with relevant suppliers documents such as Material Declarations (MDs) and Suppliers Documents of Conformity (SDoCs) throughout the ship’s operational life and renewed every five years. It covers all items and equipment that are installed, modernised or replaced.

Julien Dufour, CEO, Verifavia Shipping explained: “As we get closer to 31^st December, it is essential for the industry to be confident that its operations comply with the EU SRR regulation, including the maintenance of IHM. We are seeing increasing demand for IHM maintenance services, particularly in the lead up to the regulation deadline. Our global IHM partners global hazmat experts are based across the world, in almost 50 locations, from Brazil to Sydney to help with the preparation of IHM surveys and ensure we can facilitate surveys ahead of the deadline in local ports around the world. Indeed, our managed fleet has doubled to 1,300 vessels in just one week! We’re very proud to be working with BSM and providing them with a reliable and efficient service for around 350 vessels.”

Nicholas Rich, Group Technical Manager – Systems at BSM said: “Knowing our fleet will have ongoing IHM maintenance services provided by Verifavia Shipping is reassuring. The regulations dictate the IHM must be constantly up-to-date and Verifavia Shipping can ensure this is done efficiently and accurately, as well as facilitating the renewal survey required every five years. We are now confident our vessels comply with the regulation, but also that the correct data can easily be accessed in any port around the world, at any time, as required.”

Verifavia Shipping is one of the world’s most widely accredited IHM company, approved for IHM by the Korean Register, Indian Register of Shipping, ABS Group, Lloyd’s Register, RINA, DNV GL, China Classification Society and Bureau Veritas. Verifavia Shipping also provides IHM services for Class NK. Verifavia is one of the first companies to be approved by the Liberia and Marshall Islands flag states and has developed a one-of-a-kind IHM maintenance dashboard to ensure a simple, reliable, digital solution to maintaining a vessel’s IHM after 31^st December 2020.