zoomIllustration. Image Courtesy: Pixabay under CC0 Creative Commons license

Danish shipping company Dampskibsselskabet Norden A/S has signed an agreement for scrubber installations with Turkey’s Besiktas Shipyard.

The deal comes on the back of Norden’s thorough analysis of the effect of the sulphur directive, when it takes effect on January 1, 2020, on both the shipping and bunker markets.

“The price difference between low sulphur and high sulphur fuel is expected to be substantial for some time, which makes scrubbers an attractive method of complying with the sulphur regulations,” Jens Christensen, Head of Technical Department, Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN A/S, said.

“In practice, this means that vessels equipped with a scrubber are expected to have a significant competitive advantage as of 2020, and we therefore see scrubbers as an investment which is both economically attractive and technically viable,” he added.

In mid-August 2018, Norden revealed plans to install scrubbers on up to 31 vessels from its owned and chartered fleet. During 2018, the company secured installation of 26 scrubbers with options for 5 more.

Of these, 2 scrubbers would be installed on newbuildings, 16 retrofitted on selected, owned vessels, and the remaining 8 would be fitted on long-term chartered tonnage.