Wärtsilä CEO Says A ‘Huge’ Number of Cruise Ships Will Be LNG-Powered

This article was written by ShipandBunker.com, the world’s main free to entry web site centered on marine gasoline, with information, unique options, and bunker worth indications for 150+ ports.

A “huge” variety of cruise ships will swap to utilizing liquified pure fuel (LNG) bunkers sooner or later, 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 mentioned in the course of the firm’s current earnings name 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 beforehand reported, international LNG bunkering infrastructure is at the moment restricted, with simply 15 world ports open for general LNG bunker business as of May this 12 months.

However Rosengren praised the current multi-billion greenback order by Carnival Corporation & plc (Carnival) for 4 “next-generation” LNG-powered cruise ships, echoing the cruise big’s feedback to Ship & Bunker that “the early adopters can drive forward that infrastructure.”

“I think that’s exciting, I think, for the market,” he mentioned of the Carnival order.

“Every harbour desires a cruising ship to come back, as a result of cruising is massive enterprise, lots of people, 1000’s of vacationers coming in and spending cash within 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 identical earnings name Rosengren mentioned he additionally believes that many ship operators will select to make use of scrubbers to satisfy a 0.5 p.c international sulfur cap for marine gasoline when it comes into power in 2020 or 2025.

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