The deadline is approaching for Singapore bunker suppliers to be certified under the Singapore Standard on Quality Management for Bunker Supply Chain (SS 524:2006).

All suppliers need to be certified by next month in order to renew their bunker licences.

The Singapore Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) on Monday announced that it would help suppliers with the certification costs.

A circular on the MPA website said it would reimburse 30% of the costs for suppliers who attained SS 524:2006 certification.

“The SS 524:2006 is one of the requirements under the MPA’s Accreditation Scheme for Bunker Suppliers,” said the circular.

“With effect from 1 June 2007, all bunker suppliers in Singapore are required to engage a certification body which is accredited by the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) for Quality Management System (QMS) to certify their compliance with the SS 524:2006.”

The new Singapore Standard (SS) was unveiled two years ago at SIBCON 2006.

It supersedes the Technical Reference on Quality Management for Bunker Supply Chain (TR 8:2003), which was one of the criteria for the MPA's Accreditation Scheme for Bunker Suppliers (ASBS).

Singapore's national standards and accreditation body, SPRING Singapore, said at the launch that SS 524:2006 would help ensure that the supply chain, from product procurement to delivery of bunker to vessels, was managed “efficiently and effectively''.