Heng Tong Fuels and Shipping, the Singapore-based subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Coastal Holdings has chosen GNS, a global leader in maritime solutions, to help it comply with the latest ECDIS standards.

GNS has supplied and fitted the latest SEALL touch-technology ECDIS onboard two Heng Tong vessels, Coastal Jupiter and Coastal Neptune, replacing non-compliant legacy hardware. The new ECDIS units are fully compliant with new IEC 61174 standards, which come into force from September 2017, and were installed and commissioned in record time on both vessels.

Heng Tong Shipping operates a fleet of SIX vessels in the highly competitive and fast-moving Singapore marine fuels market. The need to provide the best quality service at competitive rates means the company must obtain maximum return from every dollar invested.

To help Heng Tong comply with new regulations that require older legacy ECDIS to be upgraded, GNS supplied and fitted the SEALL ECDIS, its preferred solution for operators looking to retrofit a user-friendly, cost-effective system.

Commenting on the decision to choose GNS as its ECDIS provider, Capt. Liu Raoping, Marine Superintendent & DPA at Heng Tong said: “We were delighted to work with GNS to upgrade our existing ECDIS hardware. We evaluated a number of options and found the SEALL ECDIS offered the most user-friendly solution as well as the simplest, most cost-efficient installation. GNS had us up and running with the new systems onboard with just a few hours.”

Heng Tong selected the SEALL ECDIS from GNS to replace its existing hardware thanks to its unique combination of powerful software and simple operation, making it one of the most capable and efficient ECDIS available today.

Its touch screen tablet-style user interface helps Heng Tong’s seafarers make complex tasks more intuitive, while its Intel® Core™ i7 Processor and innovative caching system enables ENCs to be loaded and displayed faster and tasks performed more quickly.

Richard Wagner, GNS’s Sales Director for the Asia Pacific region, said: “Heng Tong was clear that it needed a user-friendly solution that its crew could quickly become familiar with but which would deliver the benefit of cost efficiency and digital capability in the years to come. This implementation demonstrates how we are helping our shipping company clients meet their digital transformation needs though innovative, efficient and cost-effective solutions.”

Another key consideration for Heng Tong was that SEALL ECDIS has been designed with easy installation and set up in mind. It automatically detects any sensors that it is connected to including motion, positioning and heading devices and automatically sets up monitoring functions like cross track.