News / Chinese puzzle for box ship operators with new ban on open-loop scrubbers

ID 159829922 © Péter Gudella | Dreamstime.com

When demand for container shipping renews, vessels returning to China to load exports could find themselves on wrong side of a new emissions law.

At the weekend, the country banned the use of open-loop scrubbers with the ministry of transportation’s 2020 Global Fuel Oil Sulphur Limitation Order Implementation Plan (2020 plan).

It prohibits the use of fuel oil with a sulphur content exceeding 0.5% within 12 miles of China, vessels entering its waters carrying self-use fuel oil with a sulphur content exceeding ...