Scrubber advocacy group Clean Shipping Alliance (CSA 2020) has added more big names to its membership.
It now has 35 companies on its list, including latest sign-up Wallenius Wilhelmsen.
CSA's members now own nearly 2,500 ships, with other recent joiners including German shipmanager Hammonia Reederei, which is being bought by Norway's NRP, US tanker owner International Seaways, Greek company Chandris (Hellas) and US-listed bulker owner Genco Shipping & Trading.
Roger Strevens, WW VP for global sustainability, said: “The implementation of the IMO 2020 0.5% global sulphur cap is supported by the company, but it does represent a significant challenge for the shipping industry, not least from an anticipated hike in fuel costs and potential availability and quality problems.
“To mitigate the risk and costs associated with these challenges, Wallenius Wilhelmsen will use low sulphur fuels on the majority of its fleet and scrubbers on the rest of its vessels. We join the Clean Shipping Alliance 2020, to help ensure the wider industry and its stakeholders have a sound scientific understanding of the operational and environmental performance of scrubbers.”
WW has 130 vessels, of which 23 will operate with scrubbers by the end of 2021.
Strength in unity
Genco CEO John Wobensmith added: “As a shipowner that has made the decision to invest in marine exhaust gas treatment systems, we believe it is important to join like-minded shipping companies and support this influential organisation.
“CSA 2020 is committed to providing the industry with empirical and scientific data on the environmental and operational performance of EGCS operating across all ship sectors in the global fleet. This is something we at Genco very much support.”
CSA executive director Ian Adams said: "With the addition of these new members to CSA 2020, we can now gather further data on which shipowners, regulators and port authorities can make more informed decisions on how best to comply with the global sulphur cap.”
Founding members include John Fredriksen's Frontline and Golden Ocean, Idan Ofer's Eastern Pacific Shipping and Navig8.
The list also features Carnival and Safe Bulkers, which are going big on scrubbers for their fleet.
Charterers Cargill and Trafigura are also backing the alliance, together with tanker owners Torm, Hunter Group, Okeanis Eco Tankers and DHT.
Other names include Blystad Group, Eagle Bulk, Oldendorff Carriers, Grimaldi Group and Spliethoff.
