Capital opts for scrubbers on its larger ships, charges HMM $4,900 a day premium for 5,000 teu quintet

Evangelos Marinakis’s Capital Product Partners become the latest big name in shipping to hedge their bets and invest in scrubbers ahead of the global sulphur cap, which is now just 425 days away.

Capital said at a quarterly results briefing yesterday it would install scrubbers on 14 of its larger ships, namely 10 boxships, three crude tankers and a bulk carrier. For five of the boxships – all 5,000 teu in size and on charter to South Korea’s HMM, Capital has managed to increase its daily charter rates by $4,900 per day to account for the scrubber installation taking the charter fee to a very healthy $34,250 per day.

Jerry Kalogiratos, Capital’s CEO, commented on the decision to equip much of its fleet with scrubbers, saying: “We believe that this move can help increase the appeal of the partnership’s larger vessels to period charterers post January 2020, but also potentially allow us to capture meaningful premiums, such as that negotiated with one of our charterers for five of our vessels.”

Capital also revealed yesterday it has sold a 2001-built tanker called Amore Mio II to unidentified interests for $11.2m.