Another Shipowner Says No to Scrubbers

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday May 1, 2018

Bernhard Schulte is the latest shipowner to say it is unlikely to be using scrubbers as a solution to comply with the upcoming global 0.50% sulfur cap on marine fuel.

The co-called IMO 2020 rule comes into effect from January 1, 2020.

"For the existing fleet of the Schulte Group we are looking at all the options on a case-by-case basis," Angus Campbell, corporate director of energy projects at Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, told S&P Global Platts in an interview conducted during the recent Singapore Maritime Week 2018.

"Most of the time the decision will be to go for 0.50% sulfur compliant fuel. A lot of the ships are relatively small; fitting scrubber technology is not really viable in our view."

Campbell said the Group would also consider Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) bunkers for any newbuilds.

While the uptake of scrubbers has been lower than expectation set by initial official estimates, there are still a steady stream of shipowners who have been opting for the technology, with the delivery of a newbuild Pure Car & Truck Carrier for Grimaldi Group last week a case in point.