Langh Ship orders three scrubber-fitted container ships

Finnish shipping company Langh Ship has ordered three 1,200 TEU container feeder vessels with scrubbers fitted from China. PHOTO: Models of the three container ships. Langh Ship.

Langh Ship and Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI) have collaborated to design the container ships, which eventually will be deployed in Europe.

Wider price spreads between HSFO and VLSFO – Hi5 spreads - have made it more economically favourable to install scrubbers, ushering in a recent uptick in scrubber orders from shipowners including Himalaya Shipping and DHT Holdings.

Singapore and Rotterdam’s Hi5 spreads blew up to around $570/mt and $350/mt in mid-July, respectively. They have both since narrowed to around $250/mt now, but can still be viewed as attractive going forward if they hold around these levels.

Data from shipping classification society DNV shows that a total of 4,737 ships are equipped with scrubbers or have scrubbers on order this year, up by 198 from last year.

Global HSFO demand is likely to rise with more scrubber-fitted vessels coming into operation.

Langh Ship currently operates 10 container and multipurpose vessels and plans to take delivery of the first of its three new scrubber-fitted container ships by August 2024.

Container ships are big fuel consumers, which can render scrubber economics more favourable for these than for smaller vessel types. A total of 1,120 container ships have opted for scrubbers, according to DNV data. This is only behind bulk carriers with 1,691 vessels with scrubbers in operation or on order.

By Tuhin Roy

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