New Sulphur rules a worry for the shipping industry

 

New legislation designed to help reduce CO2 emissions comes into force next year, and it looks like causing a headache for the shipping industry. The 0.1 percent sulphur in fuel requirements in Emission Control Areas regulation will come into effect on 1 January 2015.

The maximum sulphur content in bunker fuel permitted in ECA zones will reduce from 1 per cent to 0.1 per cent, which means that ship operators will be forced to switch to tanks of distillate fuel, which is around 50 per cent more expensive.

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) estimates that total greenhouse gas emissions from global maritime transport have already reduced by around 20 per cent between 2007 and 2012, but the sector is still looking at the implementation of mandatory global regulations for CO2 emissions, which are targeted at reducing CO2 in the future.

International Chamber of Shipping Secretary general Peter Hinchliffe said,

"The shipping industry fully recognises that governments expect even greater CO2 efficiency improvements in the future. Given the very high cost of fuel which is soon set to increase by around 50% due to separate new rules on sulphur the industry already has every incentive to deliver this,"

The introduction of these strict regulations is problematic for the shipping industry, with regulations banning ships from burning sulphur port in due to the environmental impact. This is likely to have an even greater effect on large vessels with more 4000 containers.

 Some ships are finding fuelling to be a big problem already; there have been reports of vessels actually plugging into power sources when arrive at shore – this also proves to be an expensive option so it’s not a viable solution. Other ships have been turning to LPG instead of diesel in order to cut costs, or other fuels, but this is only possible when a ship runs on a line - there is no guarantee that alternative fuels will be available at all ports.

On top of this, there are even greater worries ahead about availability of fuel, and the impact of legislation on the cost, with a  0.5 percent global cap on sulphur due to take effect in 2020. Experts believe that an increase from the shipping industry in the demand for diesel grade fuel could even have an impact on land based industry .