IMO 2020: Is Not Knowing Worth the Wait?

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday April 6, 2018

"It's remarkable the shipping industry is having to wait this long to learn about the fuel it will be burning in 2020," writes Jack Jordan, editor of Platts Bunkerworld, in a recent opinion piece on the company's website.

Quite so. And aren't we endlessly told how shipping accounts for 90% of global trade?

"Try going to the trucking or aviation industries to tell them they'll have to use a new fuel in less than two years but more information won't be available until months before the deadline."

Jordan puts the expected response more politely than it would probably be received.

"The reception would be less than friendly," he says.

But with shipping, bunker fuel has always been seen as something of an unwanted by-product. 

"The fuel oil shipping buys at the moment is worth less than the crude from which it is refined," Jordan points out.

"We're used to hearing a lot about the supply side of that equation — the struggles refiners are going through to cope with the main source of their fuel oil demand disappearing overnight."

But isn't shipping also "a key customer"? he asks.

Operational issues in 2020 from mechanical failures related to the fuel changeover could see bottlenecks emerge, for example, in the Suez or Panama canals, and a subsequent squeeze on global trade, with the consumer, ultimately, picking up the tab.

"Then the shipping industry's concerns may start getting more attention," says Jordan.

Quite so. But until then, let's just wait-and-see.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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