Swedish owner Stena Bulk has made an investment for the installation of scrubbers on 16 tankers in its fleet before January 2020 in order to comply with the upcoming IMO regulations on sulphur emissions.
Total investment on the project is $55m including equipment, installation and time out of service. The company expects payback time of the investment is between 1.5 to 2.5 years, which has already been secured by hedging the fuel spread.
The scrubbers to be installed is open loop hybrid ready with water cleaning. Open loop scrubbers are now banned by a number of countries, regions and ports including China, Singapore, Belgium, California, Massachusetts, Fujairah, and along Germany’s Rhine river.
Stena Bulk believes the fuel availability around the globe has now become a concern.
“We evaluated the different options and came to the conclusion that for our business by installing scrubbers we will secure greater availability of fuel for our vessels and by so limit our exposure to not finding the right fuel around the world and by that stay flexible in our trading. Even doing so we know it will require some changes and probably massive challenges in the planning logistically. We will however prepare ourselves best possible so that we can secure at least the same level of support to our customers as today,” said Stena Bulk’s president and CEO Erik Hånell.
“Going forward, our digital platform, Orbit, one of many tools will be able to confirm global supply to optimize the planning in our bunker operations, as a support to commercial operation, bunker trading and chartering,” Stena Bulk said in a release.
