This article was written by ShipandBunker.com, the world’s leading free to access website focused on marine fuel, with news, exclusive features, and bunker price indications for 150+ ports.
A “huge” number of cruise ships will switch to using liquified natural gas (LNG) bunkers in the future, Wärtsilä President and CEO Bjorn Rosengren has predicted.
“The most exciting thing in the [cruise industry sector], what I think is now they are switching to gas. So there will be a huge amount of cruising vessels that will be operating on gas,” Rosengren said during the company’s recent earnings call as quoted by SeekingAlpha.
“And we do believe that we have a good technology for gas or dual fuel that are being used.”
As Ship & Bunker has previously reported, global LNG bunkering infrastructure is currently limited, with just 15 world ports open for general LNG bunker business as of May this year.
However Rosengren praised the recent multi-billion dollar order by Carnival Corporation & plc (Carnival) for four “next-generation” LNG-powered cruise ships, echoing the cruise giant’s comments to Ship & Bunker that “the early adopters can drive forward that infrastructure.”
“I think that’s exciting, I think, for the market,” he said of the Carnival order.
“Every harbour wants a cruising ship to come, because cruising is big business, a lot of people, thousands of tourists coming in and spending money in the port.
“That means that if you will have cruising ships driving round on gas that means you have to build up the infrastructure. And the infrastructure is the biggest thing holding back the development of gas as a fuel in the marine industry.”
During the same earnings call Rosengren said he also believes that many ship operators will choose to use scrubbers to meet a 0.5 percent global sulfur cap for marine fuel when it comes into force in 2020 or 2025.
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