News / CMA CGM calls for 'fair rules' on future fuels, as it leans towards LNG

Mainline operators appear to have shifted their focus away from methanol as a future fuel, and towards LNG – but methanol should not be completely disregarded, said a CMA CGM executive today.

Speaking at the biennial Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition today, CMA CGM’s VP (Bunkering and Energy Transition), Farid Trad, explained that LNG usage began many years ago, and has thus been scaled up, but that more time is needed for methanol to gain traction.

Signs that liner operators were becoming sceptical about methanol emerged in July, when Maersk Line commissioned a dozen 16,000 teu LNG dual-fuelled ships at Hanwha Ocean in South Korea and New Times Shipbuilding in China, backtracking on an earlier assertion that LNG wasn’t a future fuel for its fleet.

In contrast, ONE has ordered 22 methanol dual-fuelled 13,000 teu ships in China’s Jiangnan and Yangzijiang shipyards this year.

Mr Trad said: “We are fuel-agnostic. We have been pioneering LNG for a long time, starting with short-sea vessels, but also on a large scale since 2017. Ordering these vessels was a first step, but operational efficiencies also critical. We’re accelerating our access to renewable and low-carbon fuels.”

CMA CGM has 78 ships of 1.06m teu on order, with LNG and methanol as dual-fuel options.

Mr Trad continued: “For us, LNG has been a preferred solution from the start. Nevertheless, I don’t think that methanol should be discarded. It’s an easy-to-handle, easy-to-manage fuel. It will depend on market efficiencies … renewable and low-carbon fuels are nascent markets so basically, the more efficient the market is, the higher the rate of adoption is. In that case, LNG started earlier than bio-methanol so bio-methanol will need more time to scale up.”

Mr Trad suggested that the take-up of new fuels requires the participation of governments, shipping companies and shippers, and that governments should take the lead by bridging the price gap (renewable and low-carbon fuels are expensive) to encourage the adoption.

He said: “Today, uncertainty is one of the key factors hindering adoption of renewable energy, be it on the investment side, be it on the customers’ side or on the industry’s side.

“Renewable and low-carbon fuels are expensive, that’s no secret, and the regulators have a role to play in order to support, bridge the price gap and facilitate the adoption of renewable and low-carbon fuel.

“Shipping companies have done their fair job of decarbonising by renewing their assets, we did so, but at some point, we need clear rules of the game.”