Clarksons looks at shipping’s uptake of green technology

Summarizing the latest trends in green technology uptake and fleet renewal from the Clarksons’ Fueling Transition report and monthly data series, Steve Gordon, Clarksons Research managing director, comments that the uptake of alternative fuels has continued to progress steadily, with 4.2% of the fleet on the water and 34.0% of the orderbook in gross tonnage terms capable of using alternative fuels or propulsion.

“This includes 29.7% of orderbook tonnage set to use LNG (546 units), 2.5% to use LPG (95 units) and 1.8% due to use other alternative fuels (about 200 units; including methanol (22), ethane (10), biofuels (2), hydrogen (3) and battery/hybrid propulsion (150)),” says Gordon. Over 244 ships in the fleet and 95 on the orderbook are designated ‘LNG Ready,’ while there are now 24 ‘Ammonia Ready’ and 5 ‘Hydrogen Ready’ vessels on order.”

According to Gordon, scrubbers are now fitted to over 4,541 ships in the fleet (23.9% of total GT). While scrubber retrofitting activity has slowed from about 300 per month back in January to about 20 per month in October, newbuild uptake is up from 2020, with over 220 newbuild orders for scrubber-fitted units reported in 2021 so far, including 186 containerships.

“Energy saving technologies (ESTs) have been fitted on over 4,259 ships, accounting for 20.4% of fleet tonnage: including propeller ducts, rudder bulbs, Flettner rotors, wind kites and air lubrication systems,” says Gordon.

“’Eco’ ships make up a growing share of the fleet (‘modern’ eco vessels now 26.8% of total GT) with implications for earning potential, asset values and increasingly ‘tiered’ and complex charter markets,” says Gordon.

“Green” port infrastructure is continuing to expand. Gordon says that currently there are 141 active LNG bunkering ports and 95 planned facilities, while over 1,086 vessels are fitted or set to be fitted with shore power connections.

Clarksons Research is also collecting data on ammonia and hydrogen infrastructure.