Value drives scrubber selection for operators

He warns that shipowners should not be blasé and opt to pay potential fines instead of making scrubber investments because most likely after the rules swing into force, the light-heavy fuel price spread will spike.

“Shipowners often get a bad rap of refusing to adopt new, innovative technologies and processes. Often that’s due to valid cash concerns, especially in critical low-market cycles, but staying ahead of the game makes good business sense and these upcoming IMO regulations require it,” he said.

Well informed

Yara Marine has consulted hundreds of shipowners during the past 36 months, landing between 200 and 300 scrubber deliveries, a record for the company.

“Sales are up significantly in 2018, with anticipated revenue of NOK 700 million, and we expect this growth to continue in 2019,” said Mr Strandberg.

The focus for shipowners, according to Mr Strandberg, should not be on whether to install a scrubber solution, but to install the right one and spend its capital budget wisely.

Demand for Yara Marine’s SOx exhaust gas cleaning systems, which are able to operate in both open and closed loop, is growing.

Mr Strandberg said there is increased production by several hundred percentages at all its facilities in Europe, North America and Asia.

Yara Marine said it is the only abatement company to offer scrubber design that allows for both magnesium oxide (MgO) and caustic soda (NaOH) as alkali in closed loop.