Safe Bulkers Completes 25% of Planned Scrubber Installations
Illustration; Source: Pxhere under CC0 Creative Commons licenseMonaco-based dry bulk shipping company Safe Bulkers has completed exhaust gas cleaning system installations on five of its vessels, the company said it its latest update.
By the end of August 2019, the equipment was installed on the MV Martine, MV Venus Horizon, MV Venus History, MV Andreas K and MV Pedhoulas Cherry, as part of the company’s move to fit half of its fleet with scrubbers ahead of the upcoming IMO 2020 sulphur cap rule.
“We are on track with our environmental investments and about 25% of our planned scrubber installations were commissioned,” Loukas Barmparis, President of the Company, said.
Another 15 vessels are scheduled to be equipped with scrubbers. Five of these would completed upgrade works during the third quarter of the year, another nine are planned to undergo upgrades in the fourth quarter, while the final scrubber installation is set to be undertaken in the initial quarter of 2020.
Safe Bulkers’ environmental investments, that also included ballast water treatment system installations, were USD 20.5 million as of June 30, 2019, the company said in its financial report for the second quarter of 2019.
Net income for the quarter amounted to USD 1.8 million compared to USD 4.1 million during the same period in 2018. The change was attributed to lower net revenues, that decreased by 3% to USD 45.5 million from USD 47 million for the same period in 2018 as a result of the decrease in charter rates due to the weak charter market in the first and second quarter.
“In the first half of 2019 the charter market was weak with the BDI averaging 895. Since then the BDI has risen to an average of 1,904 for the 3rd quarter to date and as a consequence we are now entering into charters at much higher rates,” Barmparis added.
