Global commodities trader Gunvor Group said Tuesday it was joining the rising number of companies in the shipping sector opting for scrubbers to comply with the International Maritime Organization's global sulfur limit rule for marine fuels.
ClearOcean Tankers, a new ship holding company formed by Gunvor Group with Oceangold Tankers and Maas Capital, has ordered six scrubber ready tankers, Gunvor said Tuesday.
The six contracted vessels will be delivered in the first half of 2019, well ahead of the IMO's global sulfur limit rule for marine fuels, it said in a statement.
The IMO will cap sulfur in marine fuels at 0.5% worldwide from January 1, 2020, from 3.5% currently. This applies outside designated emission control areas where the limit is already 0.1%.
Using high sulfur fuel oil with scrubbers is one of several options for complying with the IMO 2020 rule, but its widespread adoption has been doubted in the past, in part due to the high investment costs involved in installing the technology.
However, one view is that after 2020, there will be so much HSFO available that low prices may justify scrubbers purely on economic grounds, making them a more attractive option for compliance.
In March, trading house Trafigura said its order for up to 32 new crude and refined product tankers is for all to be fitted with emissions-cleaning scrubbers that will enable the company to continue using fuel oil as its main bunker fuel.
South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine said last month it was considering using LNG bunkers or installing scrubbers in its newbuildings of 20 mega containerships.
In May, container shipper APL, a part of CMA CGM Group and headquartered in Singapore, said it was considering an array of bunker fuel options including scrubbers to comply with the rule.
The prospects for scrubbers are likely to receive a further boost as more finance avenues open up.
In May, investment bank Goldman Sachs told S&P Global Platts that it was willing to help shipowners finance the installation of scrubber equipment on board their vessels.
Goldman is proposing to help with this cost by partially pre-financing scrubber installations, letting shipowners access up to 25% of the initial cost of the scrubber and helping them secure additional funding from their regular credit providers, it said at the time.
