IMO2020: Star Bulk to Perform Scrubber Retrofit Work on Vessels at Sea

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday May 24, 2019

Star Bulk says it will undertake part of its scrubber installation process while vessels are at sea in order to get the retrofits completed in time for the January 1, 2020 start date of IMO2020.

"In order to reduce retrofitting time at the shipyards, we employ 120 specialized technicians that are deployed onboard our vessels and complete some of the installation at sea," Simos Spyrou, Co-Chief Financial Officer, said Thursday during the firm's latest earnings call.

Some 50 vessels are set to have half of the installation process undertaken while at sea.

In total, the owner is fitting scrubber to 101 of its vessels this year, and expects to have 40 scrubber towers installed by the end of this month.

Lack of dry dock time has perviously been seen as a major barrier to getting scrubbers installed in time for the new global 0.50% sulfur rule.