IMO2020: Scrubber's Financial Advantage Will Last a Matter of Months, says Lunde

AIDA scrubber installation. Image Credit: Carnival

Veteran ship financier Dagfinn Lunde believes any cost saving by using scrubbers + HFO for IMO 2020 compliance will be extremely short lived.

"There might be a very brief financial advantage – and I mean a matter of months – for bigger ships with scrubbers come January 1, 2020, but rather quickly I feel low sulphur fuel and slow speeding will win the day," Lunde writes in the latest edition of Maritime CEO.

The comments come in contrast to what scrubber advocates including DHT Holdings, Inc. (DHT) believe, which is that the premium for post-2020 compliant 0.50% maximum sulfur fuel will be high enough, and for long enough, that it will result in a "super profit" for those using the tech.

But even if he is wrong, Lunde, who boasts over 40 years experience in the banking and maritime industry, also makes it perfectly clear he does not think the industry should have had the option of using scrubbers int he first place.

"Scrubbers are a cheat and it is a travesty," he says, blaming everyone from "the so called 'green' banks" for financing them to the shipping industry itself for enabling the technology's use.

"Shipping bodies should have advised IMO to get the oil refineries onboard much earlier. The leaders of the shipping industry have failed to live up to the expectations of the political environment, something that happens all too regularly in the maritime industry," writes the former head of INTERTANKO and now board member of Advantage Tankers among several other roles.

"Why not embrace the new sentiments and do something positive about it instead of resisting and procrastinating."

Lunde's full comments as part of his predictions for 2019 and beyond can be read via Splash247 here: https://splash247.com/2019-predictions-and-beyond/