Pacific Basin Shipping partners with two others to develop zero-emission vessels
Hong Kong-based Pacific Basin Shipping Limited is working with Japan’s Nihon Shipyard Co. and Mitsui & Co. to develop commercially viable zero-emission vessels.
PHOTO: Exhaust gases flow from the funnel of a cruise ship. Getty Images
The trio have also agreed to invest in bunkering infrastructure to fuel the zero-emission vessels.
Nihon Shipyard will work on the design, construction and promotion of the new vessels, while trading and investment firm Mitsui will help to explore alternative fuel bunkering options and related infrastructure.
The aim is to “be at the front of the line for the purchase of these zero-emission vessels when they become available,” a spokesman from Pacific Basin says.
“As this memorandum of understanding is in its’ initial stage, we don’t have any further details to provide on the bunkering infrastructure,” he adds.
Recently Mitsui has partnered with Norwegian hydrogen bunkering company Hyon to develop hydrogen bunkering infrastructure in Europe, Asia and other locations with potential hydrogen uptake.
An increasing number of shipping firms have been exploring ways of putting zero-emission vessels on the water and decarbonise their fleets towards future emission reduction goals. Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping should at least be halved by 2050 under a mandate from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), but several firms have come out with more ambitious net zero by 2050 targets of their own.
Pacific Basin Shipping, which owns and has chartered a fleet of 236 Handysize and Supramax bulk carriers, says “there is widespread pressure for industries to tighten their targets to align with the Net Zero by 2050 goal promoted at last November’s COP26.”
