Hafnia Orders First Methanol-Fuelled Tankers

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday August 8, 2023

Shipping firm Hafnia has ordered its first tankers capable of using methanol as a bunker fuel.

The company and its joint-venture partner Socatra have ordered four 49,800 DWT dual-duelled MR tankers from Guanghzhou Shipyard International in China, Hafnia said in a statement on its website on Tuesday.

Three of the four vessels will be delivered in 2025, and the final one in 2026. The vessels are due to be chartered to TotalEnergies shipping unit CSSA for a multi-year period.

"Given the time it takes to build a vessel and the time it takes actually to start moving the needle on carbon emissions, it is important to act now and take proactive steps in decarbonizing the maritime industry," Soren Steenberg Jensen, head of asset management at Hafnia, said in the statement.

"It does, however, require partnerships with charterers, to make the financials work.

"The cost of the new fuels' technologies, if unsupported by long-term contracts, will have most owners refrain from taking the financial risk of the future fuel's technology alone on otherwise already expensive assets."

Methanol is rapidly gaining in popularity as an alternative marine fuel, with orders of methanol-fuelled tonnage now coming in regularly from a variety of shipping segments. The main challenge for this market will be the scaling-up of green methanol supply in time to meet the needs of the new ships as they are delivered.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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