Scorpio goes all-in with scrubbers
Emanuele Lauro’s Scorpio Group has entered into letters of intent with suppliers, engineering firms, and ship repair facilities to cover the purchase and installation of scrubbers on the majority of its fleet.
The latest letters of intent will cover 75 tankers and 56 bulkers, having already signed deals to retrofit 15 LR2s. Scorpio’s fleet consists of 56 buyers and 109 tankers in total.
The entire project will be completed between the second quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2020.
Scorpio estimates the scrubbers and their installation will cost between $1.5 – $2.2m per vessel, and the company anticipates that between 60-70% of the costs will be financed.
“We have long maintained that the IMO 2020 regulations are both disruptive to the shipping industry generally as well as a powerful demand catalyst for product tankers. Although many well-capitalised and publicly-listed shipowners can source capital and publicize their intentions to pursue scrubbers, most of our industry cannot, and will rely on cleaner fuels to the benefit of ton-mile demand for product tankers. Irrespective, our focus remains on operating the most competitive fleet in our marketplace, and this has led us to carefully evaluate and ultimately opt for the benefits of fitting hybrid-ready scrubbers on approximately 90 ships in our fleet,” said Lauro, chairman and CEO of Scorpio.