In TradeWinds yesterday Mr Gust Biesbroeck, head of transport at ABN Ambro talked of the opportunity that the shipping industry missed in bringing tonnage into the market quickly during the boom years whilst not installing environmental technology. “To be a little bit blunt they have been built to come to the market as quickly as possible as there was a shipping boom going on rather than being the most efficient modern ships that money could buy,” he said.
He went on to say “There is no second way about it, it makes sense for every single ship in the world, almost, to make some retrofits. I’m technology agnostic but whatever technology providers come up with which actually works is interesting for us.”
As the 2015 reduction to 0.1% sulphur in fuels in emissions control areas (ECA) approaches his words have resonance. Quite apart from the environmental case, the economic case for retrofitting sulphur emissions abatement technology is hard to question. At current rates, compliance using low sulphur marine gas oil (MGO) will have an operational cost impact of in excess of US$3 million per year for a vessel consuming @10,000 tons of fuel in an ECA.
There are currently a number of technology providers divided into the larger established names and some more emergent innovators. There has already been a degree of consolidation in the market with the acquisition of Krystallon and Aalborg by Wartsila and Alfa Laval respectively. If the shipping industry delays too long before deciding to install equipment further consolidation is likely as only those with deep pockets will be able to wait it out. It would be a shame if through inactivity the industry restricted its choice when procuring solutions, as a limited supply market would constrain both competition and innovation.
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