COSCO Shipping Lines (COSCON) is about to complete scrubber installations, a plan that was announced in 2019.
CSCL Mercury, CSCL Jupiter and CSCL Saturn, 14,000TEU sister container ships, arrived in the Liuheng yard of COSCON’s affiliate, Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Zhoushan), on 14 June 2020. The three vessels were owned by China Shipping Container Lines before COSCO acquired the group as part of the government’s move to consolidate state-owned companies.
The ships are the last of 10 vessels that COSCON earmarked in 2019 for scrubber retrofits, which usually take 15 to 30 days, depending on the vessel size.
The scrubbers are provided by Finnish firm Valmet, which has four production units and three service centres in China. Scrubber-fitted ships can continue burning, cheaper, high-sulphur fuel oil and comply with the International Maritime Organization’s emission regulations that became effective this year.
The scrubber system delivery for Cosco Shipping Lines will include a tailor-made open-loop scrubber system for main engine and generator engines including auxiliary systems and automation.
In its 2019 financial report, COSCON said that as at the end of the year, scrubber installations were completed on seven of the ships. The retrofitting schedules were planned according to the route and refuelling ports of the ships, as Zhoushan is a major bunkering port in China.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
