The plan for GE Shipping is to spend about $20m on fitting scrubbers on seven of its biggest ships, mostly large crude tankers, by December 2019, and another $30m on installing BWTS between 2019 and 2014 on all ships, according to G Shivakumar, executive director and cfo of the company, cited by the local media.
GE Shipping operates a fleet of 48 ships.
Shivakumar noted that for BWTS, it will cost $1.5m to $2m to install it on a large tanker. “That is something you have to keep in mind because you do not get any (cost) benefit from that,” he was reported saying.
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“When you install a scrubber, you get a cost saving because the high-sulphur fuel oil is much cheaper than the low-sulphur fuel and currently that spread is being quoted at about $320 per tonne for 2020 and 2021.”
He added that fitting scrubbers works much better on bigger ships which sail for more days and require high fuel consumption.
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In BWTS, it is just spending money to keep running the operation. “Then, you have to think about whether it makes sense to spend that $1.5m to $2m extra at all. And that is something that could have a big impact on scrapping (globally),” he was quoted saying.
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