07OCT2019 - NEWS - Seaspan searching for low-sulphur shipping solutions
Seaspan Corp. is adjusting course to deal with a looming low-sulphur fuel future that promises to add costs and complications throughout the multitrillion-dollar marine cargo sector. The Vancouver-based company is the world’s largest independent charter owner and manager of container ships. Its fleet has grown to 112 from the 10 it had at its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2005.
Seaspan’s customers include Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, Yang Ming and other top international container shipping lines.Each will be wrestling with International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulphur 2020 regulations that will cut the allowable sulphur content of marine vessel fuel to 0.5 per cent from the current 3.5 per cent.
That new sulphur cap comes into effect in January. It will have significant cost implications for ship owners and operators, especially those with container cargo, bulk carrier and energy tanker fleets, which account for 85 per cent of the industry’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Those added costs will also migrate along the goods movement chain and onto consumers’ shopping bills.