By Mike Wackett
Hapag-Lloyd has rolled out its plans for recovering the extra cost of compliance with IMO’s 0.5 per cent sulphur cap for shipping, which comes into force in less than 15 months. It no doubt hopes its proposals will be better received by customers than those of its rivals – slammed by suspicious shippers as “lacking transparency” and “blatant profiteering”. (more…)
By Sam Whelan, Asia correspondent
IMO’s 0.5 per cent sulphur fuel cap will cause an “existential crisis” for container carriers, unless they can pass on the added bunker costs to shippers. APL Chief Executive Nicolas Sartini said carriers had little choice but to opt for considerably more expensive low-sulphur fuel from January 2020, since the alternatives – using LNG or fitting ships with scrubbers – were not viable short-term solutions. “We are 100 per cent behind the regulation as it’s good for the environment,” he told delegates at the TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen in early October. “The problem is the new fuel cost is between $250 and $350 per tonne more expensive than the fuel we buy today.” (more…)
By Alexander Whiteman
Mandatory speed limits could be shipping lines’ best hope of achieving the IMO’s 2030 emissions reduction targets. Shipping officer for lobby group Transport & Environment, Faig Abbasov, told The Loadstar slow-steaming could “single-handedly” achieve the target. “We’re proposing mandatory limits, based on ship type,” said Mr. Abbasov, speaking on the sidelines of the Marine and Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 73) in London. “Furthermore, our slow-steaming initiative is based on an annual average rather than per individual journey, meaning priority shipments could travel at a faster rate.” (more…)
By Mike Wackett
OOCL plans to begin the switch to low-sulphur fuel for its fleet of around 100 container vessels during the second half of next year, in readiness for compliance with IMO 2020.
Unlike some of its peers, the carrier has made no reference to scrubber technology that would enable vessels to continue to burn cheaper heavy fuel oil (HFO) from 1 January 2020 when the 0.5 per cent sulphur cap becomes law. The Cosco subsidiary said it had estimated the extra cost of compliance with IMO 2020 for its vessels could be more than “half a billion dollars”. (more…)
By Mike Wackett
State-owned Korea Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) has, reportedly, signed off on some W6.15trn ($5.4 billion) of new funding for the country’s biggest ocean carrier, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) – but much of this cash will be needed to cover continued operations. (more…)
By Brian Dunn
This year marks the 115th anniversary of the Shipping Federation of Canada and as the years pass, so do its priorities. While the Federation is keeping an eye on Canada’s free trade agreement (CETA) with the European Union which is starting to pay dividends, another key focus is on the environmental front, according to Federation President Michael Broad. There are also the IMO ballast water regulations with requirements to install BWT systems coming into effect between 2019-2024, the global sulphur cap as of 2020, the GHG emission reduction strategy and talk about total decarbonization. “On a global level, it’s an ambitious agenda which will have a huge impact on us and here in Canada, we also have the whale protection agenda on both the east coast and west coast.” (more…)