Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics has become the latest big shipping brand to commit to major scrubber investments ahead of the 2020 global sulphur cap on shipping fuel.
Contained in its second quarter results, the Scandinavian car carrier giant revealed it has set aside up to $140m to retrofit a further 20 ships with scrubbers in the coming four years. Wallenius Wilhelmsen had earlier committed to retrofit an initial five vessels across its 130-strong fleet.
“Implementation of the IMO 2020 0.5% global sulphur cap represents a challenge and risk for the shipping industry, with fuel costs expected to increase about 50% combined with a lack of clarity around availability and quality of fuels,” Wallenius Wilhelmsen stated in its quarterly report.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen estimates each scrubber retrofit will cost between $6m and $7m.
