Shipowners and charterers in scrubber conflict

While traditionally investment and scrubber costs are carried by shipowners and fuel costs by charter companies, the IMO sulphur deadline has intensified the question of who should be liable for those working with ships not yet compliant, said Roy Strand. If shipowners do not retrofit scrubbers, then operators will have to bear the cost of LSGO fuel sold at a premium.

He said: “The issue is do people want to retrofit with scrubbers or are they going to burn emissions-compliant fuel.

“Scrubber activity has accelerated massively in last 4-5 months. Those with scrubbers are going to be at a competitive advantage as there will be a fuel premium.”

ROI assessment

People are now working out what their ongoing operational costs will be and when they could see a return on investment (ROI) if they retrofitted scrubbers, Mr Strand added. However, there is now a supply chain issue and scrubber suppliers can’t deliver for at least a year, which is a problem which didn’t exist a year ago.

He believes the ‘bottlenecks’ for scrubber orders are going to be in production with some of the delays stemming from material issues and some from production issues.

As not all shipowners and operators will be able to install scrubbers before the IMO sulphur limit deadline, they will be forced to be fuel-compliant.
“Every vessel is going to have to make their own decisions but a lot more are starting to see the value in the scrubber, Mr Strand surmised.