Global container demand declines spurred by backhaul blues
All eyes on the tariff fallout
ID 158887365 © Klodien | Dreamstime.com
By Mike Wackett
Ships leaving yards after scrubber retrofits are being held at anchor to await open slots on service networks and may face further idling due to soft demand forecasts, said Alphaliner.
However, given the substantial fuel cost saving achievable by these vessels, still able to bunker with HFO (heavy fuel oil), against the more-expensive LSFO (low-sulphur fuel oil) that ships without scrubber technology must consume, carriers’ ship planners want to redeploy them at the earliest opportunity.
Following the introduction of the IMO 2020 ...
Comment on this article
Martyn Benson
April 01, 2020 at 9:38 amNot to sound like a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ but just re-read this article on April 1st and the entire piece now sounds like a bad April Fool’s joke (with the quoted carrier source sounding like the Fool).
Scrubbers were always going to be a gamble because of the substantial initial investment and the increased speculation about their effectiveness and cleanliness in operation has now been reinforced by a confluence of circumstances only a coupe of months into their use.
The intention of IMO2020 was to help clean up the planet and not to find ways to carry on as before, so let’s hope that operators now start to use VLSFO as a routine, which will naturally bring and hold down its price, even after the OPEC bickering has subsided.
Stay safe.
Mike Wackett
April 01, 2020 at 3:25 pmHindsight is a wonderful thing Martyn. When the article was written even the reluctant scrubber lines such as Maersk and Hapag were scrambling to book scrubber retrofits given the then and predicted future spread between HFO and LSFO. But unless you had a crystal ball who could have predicted Covid-19 hitchhiking its way around the globe and a third of the world being placed in lockdown? And remember IMO offered the shipping industry the choice in order to comply with its 0.5% sulphur cap. When we get through this, as we will, watch how long the $20 for a barrel price lasts.