A series of polls by Yara Marine Technologies at the Maritime Air Pollution Conference, Americas in Miami asked shipping interests their take on fuel prices, scrubbers and financial risk
Asked which bears more financial risk to vessels, fines for dirty bunkers or fines for scrubber malfunctions, 70% of those polled said it was the potential for bad bunker blends, while 30% thought malfunctioning scrubber systems were the greater financial risk.
In terms of scrubber installation concerns, nearly half, 46%, saw no reason to worry, but 54% listed concerns ranging from nearly 40% worrying over the lack of discharge regulations in some ports to much smaller percentages of respondents worrying over payback times, lack of HFO supplies in small ports and other unnamed concerns.
Open-loop exhaust gas cleaning system bans are in place in China and Singapore. In addition, Pakistan, Bahrain and Malaysia have all banned open-loop scrubbers. In January 2020, the Suez authority prohibited the use of open-loop scrubbers for ships transiting the Suez canal.
As for where the fuel price spread between HFO and MGO is most likely to stabilise, 41% answered that it would stabilise at US$200 per tonne, 33% said US$250 per tonne, 15% answered that it would stabilise at US$225 per tonne, and 11% saw the stability point below US$200, at US$175 per tonne.
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