One of the top dry bulk shipping firms in the world, Pacific Basin Shipping Limited (hereinafter referred to as “Pacific Basin” or the “Company,” 2343.HK), would like to provide its stakeholders with an update on the development of its first generation of economically feasible zero-emission ships.
Zero-emission ships
With Nihon Shipyard Co., Ltd. and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., we signed a memorandum of agreement in May 2022 to work together on the development of zero-emission ships and prospective investments in associated green fuel bunkering infrastructure. Now that we have collectively finished evaluating the viability of the various potential green fuels (covering fuel characteristics, availability and scalability, technical advantages and disadvantages, the lifetime operating and capital costs, etc.), we have come to the conclusion that green methanol is currently the best fuel around which to design our first generation of emission-free ships. We anticipate that biofuels will also be a part of the industry’s fuel mix and that, once technical and safety issues are sufficiently resolved, ammonia will play a significant role as a maritime fuel in some industries.
Most suitable fuel
Mr Martin Fruergaard, CEO of Pacific Basin, said: ‘‘Drawing on the collective expertise of our partners, we are confident that methanol is currently the most suitable future fuel for Handysize and Supramax bulk carriers, and we believe the infrastructure to produce and distribute green methanol is coming. We are now embarking on the next stage of our decarbonisation project, which is to develop a highly efficient ship design around which we plan to contract our first generation of dual-fuel zero-emission new buildings, again in collaboration with our Japanese partners. We want to be at the forefront of our segment’s transition to zero-emission vessels which should enable us to meet our target of zero emissions by 2050. Through our example, we hope to help accelerate the transition and make zero-emission vessels the default choice in the dry bulk sector by 2030.’’ Mr Hirose, Director, Chief of Sales and Marketing Division, Nihon Shipyard Co., Ltd, commented: ‘‘We are pleased to support the choice of methanol as the preferred fuel for this first generation of dual-fuel zero-emission vessels, and we will continue to focus our efforts on designing and building highly efficient vessels for the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.” Mr Okamoto, COO of Mobility Business Unit II, Mitsui & Co., Ltd, commented: ‘‘Contributing to minor bulk shipping’s transition to a green future is one of the most exciting transformation activities we are currently involved in. We are pleased to select methanol as the preferred fuel, utilising our wide range of portfolios as a global trading and investment company to provide knowledge into the alternative fuel supply chain.”
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Source: Pacific Basin Shipping Limited
