The Torvald Klaveness and Marubeni-owned Baumarine by Maruklav bulker pool is eyeing further expansion after landing its first scrubber-fitted ship.
The world's biggest panamax operation has added the 82,000-dwt Bright Pegasus (built 2013), operated by Japan's KMNL Lodestar, bringing the fleet to about 30 ships.
This is KMNL's first ship in the pool.
Michael Jorgensen, managing director of joint venture Maruklav, told TradeWinds: "KMNL wants to take the temperature of how we do things."
There are another two of its ships it might contribute in future, he added.
The Norwegian and Japanese companies merged their pool interests at the start of the year.
'Interesting start'
"It's been an interesting start to the partnership. A great deal was done in January and then since then it's all been about the coronavirus," Jorgensen said.
He said pools can be beneficial in times when markets are weak, particularly for smaller companies finding that operating during the crisis is complicated.
Jorgensen would ideally like to see 15% to 20% of the fleet having scrubbers, to cover all chartering bases.
The fleet target is 35 ships by the end of the second quarter, and 45 by the end of the year.
New ships should be confirmed shortly, he said, while to achieve the 2020 target, the company will need to attract owners with fleets of three, four or five ships it can contribute.
Its pool owners are currently asking crews to stay on board ships, but China looks likely to be the first place seafarers can swap over, Jorgensen added.
U-Ming of Taiwan added a vessel to the pool last month.
