Despite the fact that Hapag-Lloyd has acquired 17 ‘LNG-ready’ containerships, chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen stated that, currently LNG containership conversions are not economically viable.
As Mr. Jansen explains, the cost of converting a ship to LNG comes with the decision on whether to convert any of its other vessels is on hold.
More specifically, the cost of conversion is expected to come down closer to $25m to be commercially viable. For this reason, the industy must find ways to bring those costs down, ”otherwise it will be economically very difficult to do more ships.”
However, this does not mean that the company will stop looking for ways to reduce its CO2 emissions. Hapag-Lloyd will start making a new plan for what will do over the next three to five years.
Currently, the company is testing the use of biofuel blends in its bunkers, and considerz LNG as a power source in any newbuilding orders.
What is more, Mr. Jansen belives that beyond LNG, the future of zero-emission fuels is still unclear. As he notes hydrogen will play a role in the future, but he estimates that there is going to be ”some sort of synthetic fuel that is gas based.”
