Namely, as of January 1st, 2020, all ships will have to consume low sulfur fuel with a sulfur content of 0.5%, down from 3.5% today, if not fitted with scrubbers.
Belgium’s shipowner plans to meet the new regulations by fueling its ships with marine gas oil (MGO) or other type of new fuels are under development by the oil companies.
“Ships can fit in scrubbers, but realistically, as it stands today, around 5% of the global fleet has announced or has installed scrubbers. So a very small part of it,” Stolt-Nielsen said in a conference call on Thursday, October 4.
“For us, if you take the current spread between MGO, and high-sulfur fuel oils (HSFO), based on our fuel consumption, if we have an additional USD 300 per tonne cost, our total cost per year is USD 150 million. So it is clear that unless we are able to pass that cost onto our customers, we will be going out of business very quickly. The industry will be going out of business very quickly.”
Stolt-Nielsen explained the move was necessary taking into account that the majority of the industry is losing money.
Container liners have already announced their plans to levy sulphur cap surcharges as of next year, a move which was not welcomed by shippers.
For the third quarter of 2018, the company reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of USD 3 million, after a USD 12.9 million negative impact resulting from a change in the accounting for the company’s investment in Avance Gas Holdings Limited. Revenue for the quarter stood at USD 543.1 million. Net profit was down when compared with a net profit of USD 9.5 million in the second quarter of 2018.
Net profit for the first nine months was USD 51.3 million, with revenue of USD 1.6 billion, up from USD 49.2 million, and revenue of USD 1.5 billion in the same period last year.
Stolt-Nielsen的首席執行官Niels Stolt-Nielsen認為，到2020年1月，該行業轉向合規燃料所產生的成本應該得到客戶的接受。
也就是說，截至2020年1月1日，如果沒有配備洗滌器，所有船舶將不得不消耗硫含量為0.5％的低硫燃料，低於目前的3.5％。
比利時的船東計劃通過為其船舶提供船用燃氣油（MGO）或其他類型的新燃料來滿足新規定，這些都是由石油公司開發的。
“ 船舶可以配備洗滌器，但實際上，就目前而言，約有5％的全球船隊已經宣布或已經安裝了洗滌器。因此， Stolt-Nielsen在10月4日星期四的電話會議上表示，這只是其中的一小部分。
“對我們來說，如果你根據我們的燃料消耗量來控制MGO和高硫燃料油（HSFO）之間的當前價差，如果我們每噸成本額外增加300美元，那麼我們每年的總成本為1.5億美元。所以很明顯，除非我們能夠將這筆費用轉嫁給我們的客戶，否則我們將很快破產。該行業將很快停業。“
Stolt-Nielsen解釋說，此舉是必要的，考慮到該行業的大部分都在虧損。
集裝箱班輪已經宣布他們計劃在 明年徵收硫附加費，這一舉動並未受到托運人的歡迎。
2018年第三季度，該公司報告歸屬於股東的淨利潤為300萬美元，此前該公司對Avance Gas Holdings Limited的投資會計處理方面的變化產生了1290萬美元的負面影響。本季度的收入為5.431億美元。與2018年第二季度的淨利潤950萬美元相比，淨利潤下降。
前九個月的淨利潤為5130萬美元，收入為16億美元，高於4920萬美元，去年同期收入為15億美元。
Information source: World Maritime News Staff , Image Courtesy: Enfos
