Hapag-Lloyd is the latest major container line to announce a fuel charge to cover the costs of using compliant low sulphur fuel for the 2020 sulphur cap.
The Hamburg-headquarted container line announced it would be gradually implementing a new Marine Fuel Recovery (MFR) mechanism from 1 January 2019 to replace existing fuel surcharges. With similar charges unveiled by other lines being denounced by shippers and forwarders for lacking transparency Hapag-Lloyd claimed its new charge would allow for “causal, transparent and easy-to-understand calculation of fuel oil costs”.
With the German line to primarily use low sulphur fuels to meet the 0.5% sulphur cap for its fleet of 226 ships it estimates an additonal fuel bill of $1bn annually based on a $250 spread in the price of low sulphur and high sulphur fuel per tonne.
The company said the MFR tookinto account various parameters, such as the vessel consumption per day, fuel type & price, sea and port days, and carried teu.
Apart from using low sulphur fuel Hapag-Lloyd is converting one LNG-ready containership in its fleet to run on gas and fitting two vessels with scrubbers.
