Norden doubles down on biofuels despite bunkering challenges
Danish shipping company Norden sees biofuels as a long-term business opportunity for shipping, even as near-term supply challenges limit their wider use around the world.
IMAGE: Barrels of used cooking oil. Getty Images
Norden’s dry bulk and tanker vessels operate across a wide range of global ports, which makes biofuel bunkering “quite challenging” on a global scale, chief executive Jan Rindbo noted in the company’s recent analyst call.
“What we're seeing in the short run is that we are actually increasing the biofuel use in our fleet quite dramatically, but it's coming from a very, very low base,” Rindbo said.
Despite challenges today, he emphasised that biofuels could play “an important part of the solution going forward,” framing them as a way to offer greener options to cargo owners keen to reduce supply chain emissions.
Norden recently partnered with German dry bulk shipping firm Oldendorff to launch a biofuel-based insetting programme in Australia.
Australian grain exporter CBH Group will book Norden and Oldendorff vessels running on waste-based biofuels to transport grain from Western Australia to European ports and claim emission reductions.
Rindbo also acknowledged that biofuels are currently more expensive than conventional fuels, but argued that a global regulatory framework such as the IMO’s proposed net-zero measures could help narrow price gaps and accelerate adoption.
By Konica Bhatt
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