Gemini carriers cut back loading allocations on challenging southern India trade
Southern India’s ocean trade continues to be a challenging market for both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, ...
By Mike Wackett
Hapag-Lloyd has belatedly joined the rush to install scrubber technology on its container vessels, ahead of the IMO 2020 0.5% sulphur cap.
Speaking during the carrier’s Capital Markets Day this week, chief operating officer, Anthony Firmin, said that the availability of exhaust gas cleaning systems was now extremely tight.
“If you wanted to order a scrubber today they are sold out,” he said.
He added that the total capacity for scrubber installation was currently only some 500 a year – mainly due to a ...
Comment on this article
John Decido
November 30, 2018 at 5:56 pmNow that Singapore have started the snowball of ports banning open loop scrubbers. How many installations already completed or still in refit will need to be scrapped or re-worked and what is the cost ?
Will ship owners have any recourse for the money they laid out in good faith to have these scrubbers fitted in the first place ?
Mike Wackett
November 30, 2018 at 6:47 pmHi John,
Many of the scrubbers being fitted are hybrid so that they can be operated in either an open or closed loop mode.
Ships fitted with scrubbers will still have to have separate tanks with ultra-low sulphur for the ECA regions, so when entering Singapore they would switch tanks as they do now for the ECAs.
Regards Mike