LNG the future for shortsea operators?

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Finland’s Containerships and partner GNS Shipping/Nordic Hamburg are the latest shortsea carriers to order dual-fuelled technology containerships capable of being retro-fitted to run on much cheaper LNG bunker fuel.

“We are in it for the long-haul,” says a statement from the company whose decision to order the two state-of-the-art boxships has no doubt been influenced by the new tougher emission control regulations that come into force in the ECA zones of north Europe and the Baltic Sea on January 1 2015.

The switch ...