What is IMO 2020
As has been widely publicised in the shipping industry new regulations called IMO2020 come into force from 1 January 2020. The regulations are being sponsored by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and are being introduced worldwide further restrict the amount of Sulphur content in the fuel used to power ships, which will reduce to 0.5% from 3.5%.
Reducing Sulphur Emissions
Shipping lines have several options to reduce sulphur emissions, they can either retrofit scrubbers to remove Sulphur from the ship‘s exhaust at around $ 5 million per scrubber with a large container ship needing several, or buy low Sulphur fuel which at the present time is considerably more expensive.
To recover their additional costs all shipping lines are imposing an additional surcharge which will normally be called an EFF (Environmental Fuel Fee) or similar. K&L Freight will be passing this charge on as incurred and it will be noted separately from December 2019 prices.
The charge is being introduced from December 2019 even though the regulations come into force from 1 January 2020 as fuel tanks for each ship need to be purged and then refilled with the new fuel several times over in order there is no residue of the existing non-compliant fuel for those ships using low Sulphur fuel. For those being fitted with scrubbers the investment has been made up front and so lines are looking to start getting their money back.
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