Longer engine testing before delivery to shipyards in Asia is causing a bottleneck to build up.
A surge in newbuilding orders, with nearly half of them being for dual-fuelled vessels, means engine makers are struggling to keep up with demand.
Speaking to TradeWinds in the halls of SMM, MAN ES senior vice president and head of the company’s two-stroke business Bjarne Foldager said dual-fuel engines require three times as long in trials before delivery to the yard and this is leading to delays.
MAN ES two-stroke engines are built by a network of licensees, notably in South Korea, China and Japan.
Each engine built by a licensee needs to be put through what is known as the factory acceptance test, or sometimes known as a shop test, before being delivered to a shipyard and laid in the newbuilding.
“The biggest investment for the dual-fuel engine is in the test facility,” Foldager said.
“The bottleneck today in manufacturing dual-fuel engines is in test beds. I think at the previous peaks in the market, 10 or 15 years ago, it was related to the availability of crankshafts.”
Foldager said Two things have changed since the last peak that is causing this newbuildings rush to lead to a bottleneck.
One is the NOx regulations. Engines need to be tested to Tier II and then additionally tested to Tier III emissions level requirements that have been set by the International Maritime Organisation.
The other factor slowing down engine delivery is the need to run tests for conventional marine fuels and the alternative fuels the engine is being built for.
“So that means you need three times longer on testbeds, or three times more capacity,” Foldager said.
“Then you also need separate systems for methane, separate systems for methanol or for LPG. So it’s really big investments that the licensees have to have to make.”
There are reports that some engine makers are expanding their engine range and for this Foldager said there needs to be a parent engine test, and for a completely new engine there would also need to be research and development tests.
“If you realise that the test time is the bottleneck today, then the engine builders are not too keen on spending the time on R&D tests,” Foldager said.
“They would prefer to spend it on actual production engines that they can sell to the shipyard. But it is really important that the engines are thoroughly tested before they are supplied to the shipyard.”
