South Korean shipping line Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a group of domestic companies and institutions to establish a fund for scrubber installation in preparation for the upcoming IMO 2020 regulations on sulphur emissions.
Total investment of the fund will be KRW153.3bn ($135.8m). HMM will contribute KRW46bn and Korean Ocean Business Corporation (KOBC) will provide a guaranteed loan of KRW62.3bn while the remaining KRW45bn will be invested by Hyundai Corporation, SKTI, Hyundai Global Service, DSEC, and Panasia.
HMM plans to install scrubbers for 19 of its containerships by the first half of 2020 and the five companies will be the prioritised suppliers of scrubber equipment and fuel.
According to HMM, it has installed scrubbers on two 11,000 teu containerships, HMM Promise and HMM Blessing, and the two ships are the world’s first containerships with more than 11,000 TEUs to be equipped with large scrubber systems.
The company also plans to install scrubbers on twelve 23,000 teu newbuilding vessels which are expected for delivery in 2020.
HMM currently has 24 newbuildings on order made up of 20 containerships and four VLCCs.
