In a bid to comply with the IMO 2020 sulphur cap, German container shipping major Hapag-Lloyd announced it has ordered ten hybrid-ready scrubbers to be gradually installed to ten of its 13,000 TEU Hamburg class vessels during 2019 and 2020.
In March 2019, the retrofits will start and the first EGCS will be installed to the vessel ‘Hamburg Express’ at Qingdao Beihai shipyard in China. The installations are expected to be finished before the end of 2020. The decision was made as a part of the company’s response to the IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap. Hybrid scrubber system can run in both open or closed loop mode.
Using compliant low sulphur fuels is the key solution for Hapag-Lloyd. However, we want to make sure we test and make use of all relevant solutions, which is why we decided to also retrofit our Hamburg Class vessels with EGCS.
…Anthony Firmin, COO of Hapag-Lloyd stated on the report of the company.
The decision follows other major container shipping companies , including Maersk, that already have planned to install scrubbers on their fleet. Most companies seem to select a combination of more than one solutions to comply with the 0.5% limit of the IMO 2020 low sulphur regulation.
Hapag-Lloyd also has 17 new vessels in its fleet, which can be converted to use LNG. The company will retrofit one vessel of 15,000 TEU during 2019 and will then test whether LNG is a suitable alternative to low sulphur fuel.
