Americas News
Carnival "Completely Pleased" with Scrubber Tests
Carnival Corp. and plc (Carnival) has installed scrubbers on seven ships and expects to have 20 or more vessels using the systems by the end of 2014, CFO David Bernstein told analysts on a quarterly earnings call.
Bernstein said the cruise operator conducted tests of the systems with a pilot installation on the Queen Victoria.
"We were completely pleased with the results," he said.
"We've put in on six additional ships."
With the use of the emissions-cleaning systems and exemptions the company has received for 2015, Bernstein said stricter regulations in the North American Emission Control Area (ECA) should not have a significant impact on the company's cost structure.
"The numbers previously in prior 10-Ks were a few hundred million dollar impact as a result of the low-sulfur fuel," he said.
"We're progressing, we're pleased with the progress we're making, and we will continue to roll the scrubbers out over time both in '15 and '16."
Carnival reported a net loss of $15 million for the first quarter of 2014, compared with a profit of $37 million in Q1 2013 as revenues held steady at $3.6 billion.
The company said the net loss was driven by $17 million in net unrealised losses on fuel derivatives.
The company predicts it will use 3.2 million metric tonnes (mt) of fuel in 2014 at a price of $653 per mt.
Carnival announced in September that it would spend $180 million to install scrubbers on 32 ships.
Since then, it has said it will resume operations of cruises from the U.S. East Coast ports of Baltimore, Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia after leaving the ports to avoid extra costs from operations in the ECA.
