
Shipowners and operators will soon face hard reality of new regulations. It is the last minute for action now.
From 1 January 2015, a new set of rules will limit the sulphur emissions to 0.1% from the current limit of 1.0% in SECAs (Sulphur Emission Control Areas). These areas include the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Channel, which are DFDS’ primary market areas. According to recent DFDS Annual Report\'s business environment overview - the price of MGO (Marine Gas Oil) with a content of 0.1% sulphur is currently 40-50 % higher than 1.0 % bunker fuel and this price difference is expected to continue in the future.
DFDS applies a pro-active policy having defined its own strategy of transition to new sulphur rules. And Remontowa largely contributes to the process of getting DFDS ready for new emission regulations. In the course of the summer of 2013, scrubbers were installed on three freight ro-ro ships, Petunia Seaways, Magnolia Seaways and Selandia Seaways. Those vessels are followed by scrubbers installation onboard further seven ships during 2014, at Remontowa again.
The work is to be carried out during the ships’ normal, scheduled drydocking time, which is expected to extend the out-of-service period for each ship from the scheduled 14 days to an additional one week or so, similarly to three ships fitted with scrubbers at Remontowa in 2013.
A new batch of DFDS vessels to receive scrubber installations comprises: two ro-pax vessels from Kiel-Klaipeda and Karlshamn-Klaipeda routes - Victoria Seaways (built 2009, GT 25,518), Optima Seaways (built 1999, GT 25,206), adding to five freight ro-ro ships: Britannia Seaways (2000, GT 24,196, Esbjerg - Immingham route), Suecia Seaways (1999 built, GT 24,196, Vlaardingen - Felixstowe route) , Primula Seaways (2004, GT 32,289; Gothenburg - Brevik - Gent) and sisterships Freesia Seaways (2005; Gothenburg - Brevik - Gent) and Begonia Seaways (2004 built, both GT 37,939; Gothenburg - Brevik - Immingham).
The Alfa Laval\'s PureSOx scrubbers have already been installed on the first ship - Victoria Seaways (on the pictures), which will be followed by another six sister - ships during 2014.
- We are conducting a very developed talks also with other owners operating in the SECA – Zbigniew Andruszkiewicz, member of the Remontowa’s board admits – so I can say, that amount of such installations in our shipyard will be growing up!
remontowa.com.pl