A new marine services company under Hyundai Heavy Industries has signed two memoranda of understanding that position it to stake a claim in the lucrative market for retrofitting environmental technologies.
Under an agreement with Korean shipping company KSS Line, Hyundai Global Services will work with the owner to retrofit exhaust gas cleaning systems (or scrubbers) on KSS’ fleet of medium-sized LPG carriers. Scrubbers enable ships to comply with sulphur limits in emission control areas and, from 2020, the global 0.5% sulphur cap while burning high-sulphur fuel.
The two companies have formed a task force to conduct basic engineering of the system, and aim to finish detail engineering by the end of the year. Meanwhile KSS Line will analyse potential fuel savings (based on voyage data from the vessels to be retrofitted) and will conduct a feasibility study of the joint business.
Hyundai Global Services has also signed a MoU with Norwegian scrubber supplier Clean Marine to supply scrubbers for retrofit projects on Hyundai-built vessels. Frode Helland-Evebø, chiefsales and marketing officer, Clean Marine, told The Motorship that the project by Hyundai Global Services would target older vessels built at Hyundai yards that may otherwise have had to be scrapped due to incoming sulphur and ballast water management regulations.
Describing the size of the potential market for scrubber retrofits, Hyundai Heavy Industries said that more than 15,000 ships are expected to have scrubbers installed, with the market growing to around US$1 billion by 2020.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Global Services has established a strategic agreement with Alfa Laval for retrofitting the company’s ballast water management systems. The supplier’s PureBallast 3 range gained USCG type approval in December, and the IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention comes into effect on 8 September, after which most vessels will be required to have a system installed at their first IOPP renewal
THE MOTOR SHIP