As a part of the NYK Group’s medium-term management plan “Staying Ahead 2022 with Digitalization and Green,” a new future concept ship has been designed by incorporating innovative technologies that will result in an emission-free vessel — the “NYK Super Eco Ship 2050.” 1. Background The NYK Group’s mission of “Bringing value to life” and the company’s basic philosophy of “contributing to the betterment of societies” has inspired the group to positively address the tough issues that challenge our society. In fact, NYK’s medium-term management plan includes the group’s intent ...

The new bulk carrier m/s Viikki, owned by ESL Shipping, a subsidiary of the Aspo Plc, has started operating on the Baltic Sea. The 25,600-dwt vessel, 160 metres long and fuelled by liquefied natural gas, produces less than half of the carbon dioxide of previous vessel generation, thanks to LNG and many advanced technologies. M/s Viikki was built in China, and after completion first sailed to Japan to load a cargo of raw materials. From there, she arrived to the Baltic Sea through the Northeast Passage, which shortened the journey ...

With the end of 2018 arrive new important deadlines for the shipping activity. During this present year ship owners had the obligation of monitoring data from vessel’s activity, being the most important the monitoring fuel consumed and the tonnes of CO2 emitted. With EU MRV, companies had the necessity of having a Monitoring Plan updated and assessed by accredited verifiers and also to keep on board a Document of Compliance (DOC). This regulation represented a lot of concerns to the shipping companies namely in order to avoid non-conformities and non-compliance ...

Leading global maritime technology company Kongsberg Maritime has selected Leclanché, one of the world’s leading storage solutions companies, as its battery partner and supplier of customised marine energy storage solutions. The partnership contributes to KONGSBERG’s new generation of hybrid power solutions, which are set to deliver game-changing efficiencies and reduce the environmental impact of transportation with cutting-edge autonomous and crewed vessel newbuilds. Leclanché’s batteries will be an integral part of KONGBSERG’s hybrid solutions. Through the partnership, Leclanché will deliver one of the largest single marine battery system order to date ...

The University of the South Pacific (USP) and The China Navigation Company (CNCo), parent of Swire Shipping and Swire Bulk, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to conduct feasibility studies for the design costs and plan for new generation ships for the Pacific region which is committed to low carbon sea transport. Under the MOU signed on 10 November 2018, Project Cerulean aims to eventually develop a new class of small cargo freighter, which, once proven to be commercially viable to operate, can be scaled up in numbers to ...

TORM plc (“TORM” Ticker: TRMD) has established a joint venture with ME Production, a leading scrubber manufacturer, and Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), which is part of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation group. The joint venture, ME Production China, will manufacture and install scrubbers in China and deliver them to a range of maritime industry customers for both newbuildings and retrofitted vessels. TORM holds an ownership stake of 27.5% in the new joint venture. “Our long-standing relationships with GSI and ME Production helped to facilitate this unique joint venture at a ...

The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee’s 73rd session (MEPC73) has just ended, and with it, so did all speculations about a potential delay of the global 0.50% sulphur cap. The rules apply from 1 January 2020 – and they will be enforced. To ensure a consistent implementation and enforcement, the MEPC73 also adopted the ‘carriage ban’, a complementary MARPOL amendment that will prohibit the carriage of fuel with a sulphur content of more than 0.50% for combustion purposes for propulsion or operation on board a ship – unless the ship ...

In another significant move towards commercial release of the EnergySail®, Eco Marine Power (EMP) announced that it has begun collaboration with ClassNK (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai) to confirm design requirements and issues related to sea trials. The goal is to pave the way to the full commercial production of the EnergySail and thus complete the preparation of technologies required for the release of EMP’s Aquarius Marine Renewable Energy or Aquarius MRE® solution. The patented Aquarius MRE is an advanced integrated system of rigid sails, marine-grade solar panels, energy storage modules, charging ...

A wide consensus that the global shipping fleet must decarbonize has catalysed over the past 12 months since the Bonn meeting of the UNFCCC COP23 and calls for shipping to move faster on this. We had the IMO initial strategy of at least 50% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 in April, spurred on further by the recent IPCC 1.5C report calling for 45% reductions by 2030 to avoid the worst climate change scenarios. Against this policy backdrop, a worldwide sulphur cap pending and rising fuel prices, a number of ...

ABB and SINTEF Ocean are undertaking groundbreaking research to test the viability of fuel cells as an energy source for main ship propulsion. The new research project seeks to provide the answers required for fuel cell technology to be delivered at the scale needed to power commercial and passenger ships. The testing methodology, to be developed at SINTEF Ocean’s Trondheim-based laboratory, will use two 30kW fuel cells, set up to model the operation and control of a complete marine power system in a megawatt-scale propulsion plant. ABB’s own software together ...

The largest ever high-speed catamaran, which will operate on LNG fuel, will feature a fully integrated scope of supply from the technology group Wärtsilä. The 125 metres long vessel is being built at the Armon Gijón shipyard in Spain for Spanish ferry operator Baleària. The order with Wärtsilä was booked in Q2, 2018. The ability of Wärtsilä to deliver a fully integrated scope, including the engines, the waterjets, and the LNG fuel storage and supply system, together with all the related auxiliary systems, was an important option for both the ...

Earlier this year, the Moore Stephens international member firm in Greece published ‘Owners’ Dilemma’, a thought leadership article looking at the financial considerations arising from the decision about whether to fit scrubbers to comply with the IMO regulation for reduced sulphur emissions (IMO 2020), from 1 January 2020. Many ship-owners and operators have started to consider the commercial and accounting implications as a result of the need to comply with IMO 2020. The market is expecting that no more than 10 % of vessels in service will have scrubbers installed ...

More stringent fuel regulations regarding sulphur content could significantly increase global shipping companies’ operating costs and capex needs, Fitch Ratings says. This may negatively affect their credit quality unless they manage to pass these costs to customers. Many shipping companies have started implementing fuel surcharges to recover costs associated with the new sulphur cap regulation, but their ability to sustain these will depend on market fundamentals, which remain challenging. Competitive dynamics may change in the longer term with companies that are less financially able to absorb additional costs, especially given ...

SEA\LNG, the multi-sector industry coalition aiming to accelerate the widespread adoption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a marine fuel, strongly supports the decision of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) to reaffirm the January 1, 2020 implementation date of the 0.50% sulphur fuel limit. SEA\LNG also applauds the adoption of the amendment to MARPOL Annex VI for a carriage ban on non-compliant fuels for vessels without an approved equivalent arrangement to meet the sulphur limit – such as an exhaust gas cleaning system (EGCS) on March 1, 2020. SEA\LNG ...

The 73rd session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee has dealt with a huge amount of work this week. Below is a brief summary of points of particular relevance to IBIA’s members. We aim to report in more detail later, and at our Annual Convention in Copenhagen, 6-8 November, which will be the first opportunity for our industry come together in a wider forum to hear first-hand accounts from MEPC 73 and discuss the outcomes. 1 – Amendments to MARPOL Annex VI to prohibit not just the use, but ...