The number of new scrubber installations dropped by almost a quarter last year, according to shipping industry body BIMCO. A total of 399 scrubber installations were seen in 2022, down by 24% from the previous year’s total, BIMCO said in a statement on its website on Wednesday, citing data from Clarksons.
Currently 13% of bulkers, boxships and tankers have a scrubber installed, the organisation said. But the share of ships equipped with the emissions-cleaning technology is set to continue rising, with 17% of ships currently on orders expected to have a scrubber installed.
“In the long term, the use of scrubbers to cut sulphur emissions may reduce as decarbonisation efforts will increase the use of alternative fuels that are sulphur compliant,” BIMCO said in the statement.
Looking at bunker demand data where product breakdowns are available, scrubbers are already keeping HSFO at a significant share of the marine energy mix.
In Singapore HSFO took up 28.5% of conventional bunker demand last year, up from 25.8% the previous year.
In Rotterdam the 2022 HSFO share was 31.9%, up from 28.8% the previous year. And in Fujairah the 2022 share was 19.8%, up from 17.4% in 2021.
