Ship repair coordinator Newport Shipping Group has made a clever move ahead og the global sulphur cap, purchasing 100 scrubbers with options for an additional 100 units from Chinese scrubber manufacturer Weihai Puyi Marine Environmental Technology Co (Puyier).
The bulk purchase of scrubbers, which Newport says is aimed at safeguarding shipowners against any price hikes or production bottlenecks as demand increases, coincides with the signing of cooperation agreements with engineering services providers Harris-Pye and Goltens.
Newport CEO Erol Sarikaya said: “Together with our existing global network of drydocks, we can now offer the marine industry its first-ever turnkey scrubber retrofit solution. We are providing shipowners with a true one-stop-shop for equipment procurement, engineering, guaranteed retrofit slots, and attractive deferred payment plans covering up to 60% of the total contract cover over 18-months subsequent to retrofit completion.
“Having secured an 8-month lead-time for scrubbers ordered by the end of October, we can guarantee shipowners that their retrofits will be completed well in advance of the 2020 Sulphur Cap implementation date.”
Newport’s 200 scrubber play comes as shipping executives are increasingly aware of the scant time available now to get a scrubber installed on their ships with less than 15 months to go until the 0.5% sulphur cap comes online.
Newport currently has a pipeline of owners across all major vessel classes for projects totalling 87 of the 100 scrubbers purchased with binding LOIs and contracts.
Working with Newport is highly risky. The Beneficial owners are the Cicek family who are bankrupt with hundreds of millions of debt. When the creditors get the documents linking the family to the company – it will go bankrupt in a day –