20SEP2019 - NEWS - Container carriers still concerned about low sulfur fuel availability

A senior shipping executive said there is still concern in the container shipping industry about whether there will be sufficient low sulfur fuel available for shipping lines to meet the International Maritime Organization requirement that starting on Jan. 1, 2020, ships use fuel with a sulfur content of 0.5% instead of the high sulfur bunker fuel with 3.5% sulfur widely used today, or install engine exhaust scrubbers.

Speaking during a panel discussion about the IMO 2020 regulation at the Intermodal Association of North America’s Intermodal Expo in Long Beach this week, Lawrence Burns, senior vice president of trades and sales at Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), said it is not clear whether compliant fuel will be available at all ports.

One possibility is that carriers will have to resort to buying even more expensive 0.1% sulfur fuel that today carriers use in so-called sulfur emission control areas (ECAs), he said. There is an ECA that extends for 200 miles from much of the coast of the U.S. and Canada. ECAs also exist in the Caribbean, North Sea and Baltic Sea and countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea are currently considering creating an ECA.