TORM to Equip Ten More Ships with Scrubbers
Danish tanker shipping company TORM would fit ten more vessels with scrubbers, bringing the total number of planned scrubber installations to 44.
“The new installations support our balanced approach to the new sulfur regulation, according to which approximately half of TORM’s fleet will operate with scrubbers,” the company said.
The recently decided additional scrubber installations would be undertaken during the first and the second quarter of 2020.
As of November 12, TORM has conducted 16 scrubber installations. Of the remaining 28 installations, seven are expected to be conducted in 2019, 12 in the first quarter of 2020 and nine in the second quarter of 2020.
The company explained that, as seen across the entire industry, it has also experienced some delays in recent scrubber installations. Therefore, TORM has decided to postpone some installations to the first and the second quarter of 2020 to reduce the risk of further delays, and also to utilize the current strong market.
For the non-scrubber vessels, that will be using compliant fuels with 0.5% sulfur content from January 1, 2020, customized schedules have been developed, and the cleaning of the bunker tanks have been initiated during the third quarter of 2019. The first volumes of compliant fuels have been delivered and tested onboard the vessels, and all non-scrubber vessels are in the process of being prepared for using the new compliant fuels during the fourth quarter of 2019, TORM noted.
The developments were revealed in the company’s third quarter of 2019 financial report, in which TORM also informed that it took delivery of four secondhand MR vessels that were purchased in the second quarter of 2019 and the two MR newbuildings TORM Solution and TORM Strong.
After the quarter ended September 30, 2019, the company took delivery of an additional MR newbuilding, TORM Sublime.
The company’s EBITDA for the third quarter of 2019 was USD 32 million, up from the USD 14.7 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier. The loss before tax amounted to USD 8.5 million, compared to a loss of USD 24.5 million seen in the third quarter of 2018.
During the period, TORM achieved TCE rates of USD/day 13,392, up from USD/day 10,598 seen a year before.
“Having experienced a seasonally softer freight rate environment in the third quarter of 2019, the product tanker market has strengthened significantly going into the fourth quarter. As the demand and supply balance tightens towards the upcoming IMO 2020, individual events have caused spikes in product tanker freight rates to levels last seen in 2008,” Jacob Meldgaard, Executive Director, said.
“For the fourth quarter, our bookings as of November 8, 2019 were at USD/day 19,531 reflecting the strong market we are currently operating in.”
