Pumps for scrubbers: price, quality and timeliness

It is not surprising that scrubber retrofit installations have been in turmoil this year. Following Chinese New Year in February China closed down to contain the spread of Covid-19; shipyard workers who had journeyed back home found they were unable to return to the yards and many retrofit programmes simply ground to a halt. On the tanker side, retrofit programmes for scrubbers and ballast water systems had already been disrupted in the last two quarters of 2019 from the surge in tanker day rates.

Having carefully scheduled last voyages to time with retrofit installation slots in China, some tankers were hurriedly re-directed back to the Middle East to take advantage of record day rates being offered to load crude oil in Saudi Arabia. When rates hit US$200,000/day, retrofits can wait.

“When rates hit US$200,000/day, retrofits can wait”

Speed and timeliness are the main requirements to meet the demands of VLCC owners looking to retrofit scrubbers and return to work. This was the brief given to scrubber manufacturer Langh Tech of Finland which chose Hamworthy to supply pumps for two separate VLCC projects, both involving the delivery of two shipsets, each including four pumps. The first order was delivered in late 2019, and the second during the first half of 2020. The project consists of two shipsets, three CGM300 pumps for a duty of 900 m³/hr@75 m head and one CGD200 for a duty of 390 m³/hr@35 m head. The second project was for two shipsets consisting of 3 x CGM250 pumps for a duty of 700 m³/hr@69 m head and 1 x CGC150 at a duty of 350 m³/hr@ 35 m head.

“Hamworthy Pumps were able to offer a good delivery time that suited our project,” says Langh Tech commercial director Laura Langh-Lagerlöf. “That, together with the price and excellent reputation of Hamworthy Pumps as a brand, led us to our decision.”

Hamworthy Pumps reports that it has geared up to supply the scrubber market and that its focus is on further growth as a supplier to the scrubber market, following a tenfold increase in sales of scrubber pumps last year. According to Hamworthy Pumps, fewer than 4,000 of the world’s 50,000 merchant ships currently have a scrubber installed: the market potential is huge.

With more than 800 pumps supplied for scrubber systems, Hamworthy Pumps can cater to both open loop and closed/hybrid systems. Hamworthy says its compact pumps have a low Net Positive Suction Head Required (NPSHr), coupled with high efficiency and reliability and low lifecycle costs.