News / Still-bullish charter market being driven by more scrubber fitting

Notwithstanding the start of the winter slack season the container charter market remains robust, buoyed by a shortage of tonnage caused by the substantial number of ships taken out of service for scrubber retrofitting.

According to Alphaliner data, there are 44 containerships, for a total capacity of 436,000 teu, in dry dock for the installation of exhaust gas cleaning systems.

These will enable the vessels to continue to bunker with cheaper HFO (heavy fuel oil) after the IMO’s 0.5% sulphur cap on ...