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It’s back to the seventies, warns DFDS

[ December 3, 2013   //   ]

The north European short-sea is facing a fuel price hike 50% bigger than the oil price ‘shock’ of the 1970s, warns DFDS Seaways. Poul Woodall, director of sustainability and environment at the Danish-owned ferry operator, told a recent customer presentation that his own analysis of the likely effect of new Marpol limits on the sulphur content of marine fuel would be to substantially increase the cost of this major expense for all operators in the North European Emission Control Area, which covers the English Channel, North Sea and Baltic.

The new 0.1% limit on ships’ sulphur output from 1 January 2015 will leave operators with a stark choice – switch from standard marine oil to more expensive diesel, fit exhaust scrubbers to clean up the emissions from marine oil, switch to liquefied natural gas (LNG) – or move ships out of the region.

Increases in freight rates are inevitable, he says. “If you don’t put your prices up, you’re in trouble,” he told FBJ.

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