The Daily View: Feet to the fire
CONTAINERSHIPS continue to dominate alternative fuel newbuildings.
That’s what the data from DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insights has shown for another year. In fact the segment accounts for nearly 68% of all alt-fuel newbuildings, according to the class society.
There are some obvious reasons for this. Boxships’ bus-like timetables make planning bunkering easier than for a tramp bulker, calling ports you probably couldn’t find on a map, let alone store ammonia at.
But DNV global decarbonisation director Jason Stefanatos also highlights proximity to the end user.
Shipping has undergone energy transitions in the past: wind to steam and steam to oil. But today’s transition will cost money, rather than make it.
That is, granted, quite a big difference and a significant barrier. Somebody will have to pay, and it is unlikely to ultimately be the shipowner.
Instead, Stefanatos said, cargo owners willing to pay a premium to ship their goods greenly will pick up the tab, which will of course eventually be passed to the end consumer.
In that respect, the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance is proving its worth. By marshalling customers happy to pay extra, Zemba has sent container lines the signal they need to invest in greener fuels.
No such scheme exists in for dry bulk (despite the innovative efforts of Rio Tinto to share the cost of energy-saving devices on chartered vessels). Perhaps it can’t, thanks to the nature of tramp shipping.
Dry bulk shippers’ appetite to pay extra for greenery is, we’re told, basically zero. It is up to regulators to ensure shipping customers pay a fair price for their pollution.
The idea of coal or crude oil carried on zero-emissions ships has always generated some amusement in the Lloyd’s List newsroom. But the problem of cleaning up the shipping remains.
For those already in the vanguard of this particular energy transition, October’s drama at the International Maritime Organization won’t have changed much.
Ditto for those unfussed about the planet; they can still afford to do nothing.
But for those in the middle, the key metric that will decide action is pressure.
If it’s not coming from above (and it doesn’t look like it will), and it’s too abstract to measure further down the supply chain, why take the risk on a dual-fuel vessel?
Joshua Minchin
Senior reporter, Lloyd’s List
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