According to recent data issued by BIMCO, approximately 47% of all newly built dry bulkers delivered during 2020, are installed with exhaust gas cleaning systems, known as scrubbers.
Following the IMO 2020 sulphur cap, which entered into force in January 2020, shipowners oftenly choose an SOx scrubber as a tool to comply with the regulation.
As Peter Sand, BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst noted, during 2020 only three Handysize bulkers in total have been delivered from the newbuilding yards with a scrubber fitted, while one in three Handymax bulkers were delivered with scrubbers installed.
What is more, the Panamax sub-sector marked the most scrubber installations, as 81 units out of 150, meaning a 54% of the newbuilt bulkers deliveries, were scrubber-fitted.
When considering the share of scrubber-fitted ships within the large sub-sectors, comprising of capesize, Very Large Ore Carriers (VLOC) and Valemax, that share ranges between 85% and 100%. In just 13 cases out of the 96 ships that burn the most fuel, the shipowner opted for using Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO), instead of making the scrubber investment.
…as Peter Sand added.
An additional point is that 2020 year-to-date average spot market earnings for a scrubber-fitted capesize have exceeded that of a non-scrubber fitted capesize by $ 2,818 per day (+27%).
Concluding, a recent analysis from DNV GL also showed that the amount of ships with scrubbers increased by 80% from January through to October, as most of the scrubbers have been installed on container and dry bulk vessels.
