AFI head Martin Wold suggested that the quick growth in installed LNG tank capacity could be the beginning of a new era in ship fuel. Currently, there are 163 LNG-fueled ships operating and another 155 ships on order.
What is more, order intake for LNG-fueled ships has remained steady for the past years at about 40 ships per year. However, in 2019 the industry has passed 40 new orders in the first five months, which could be a sign that the pace for LNG fuel investments is picking up.
The AFI platform shows that installed LNG tank volume will more than triple from around 100,000m3 today to the end of 2020. This represents large tanks in large vessels, propelled by the introduction of LNG fuel in the cruise, container and tanker segments
Namely, the 2020 'sulphur cap' seems to have accelerated LNG adoption, especially for larger ships, something that could increase fuel availability and improve asset utilization.
Regarding scrubbers, the number of vessels with this technology stands at 3,553. This number could be higher as some manufacturers did not report orders on a regular basis. Specifically, the boom of 2018 seems to have levelled off at a certain point, but new orders are still coming in.
Currently, there are over 2,000 installations reported to be completed in 2019, meaning that by the start of 2020 around 3,000 scrubber ships will be operating. However, because of the complexity of scrubber retrofits, DNV GL expects that not all of these vessels will be on the water by 2020.
