Americas News
Wärtsilä: LNG Container Ships will Dominate Market in 10 Years
By 2024, liquefied natural gas (LNG) will dominate the container ship market, a Wärtsilä Corp. (Wärtsilä) leader told industry news site Shipping Watch.
Jacob Thygesen, head of global commercial activities at Wärtsilä Ship Design, said the company's contract with Crowley Maritime Corp. for the world's first two LNG-powered container ships represents a milestone for the industry.
"I think this will be the beginning of a complete change - a paradigm change - in the container industry, and ten years from now I doubt that there'll be any conventionally driven container ships left," he said.
Thygesen said the need for ships to use less-polluting fuel in Emissions Control Areas (ECAs) will push the use of LNG forward.
"This means that the LNG network will be expanded day by day globally in order to accommodate the increasing demand from shipping to load fuel as gas," he said.
Thygesen said Wärtsilä anticipates increasing demand for LNG-powered vessels as ship owners look at the long-term value of the ships.
"Conventional fuels are on the way out because they pollute too much," he said.
"If you want to make sure your ship is future proof, you buy a straight gas solution or a combined solution that includes gas, and on the long term, the fact that a ship is not merely retrofitted will also impact its value.
"If on the one hand you have a retrofitted ship, and on the other hand a ship that's built around an approved, environmental gas solution, there will be a difference in value between the two ships, and a shipowner here will quickly be able to spot the value of an LNG solution."
VT Halter Marine, the U.S. shipyard building the vessels, has said the design "raises the bar" for merchant shipping.
