2023 is a year of acceleration for the maritime industry – ABS

Speaking at the keynote session of CMA Shipping 2023 in Connecticut, ABS Vice President, Regional Business Development North America, Roy Bleiberg, laid out his view on what the industry can expect in 2023 when it comes to decarbonisation. Preparing for rapid technology advancement and regulatory change in the maritime industry cannot be business as usual, according to ABS.

“Rapid change is now the one constant for all of us. Whether this is driven by the addition of carbon as a revenue stream to your balance sheets, or the ripple effect of alternative fuels across your operations, or even the geopolitical influences driving change in established trades, we foresee entire business models changing as a result,” said Bleiberg.

“I would argue that in 2023 is going to accelerate the curve and it must if we’re going to hit our 2050 targets.”

The IMO’s MEPC 80 is expected to be a regulatory accelerator of change in the industry and ABS anticipates the meeting will expand the scope of emissions to account for the full lifecycle of a fuel. Between that and the inclusion of ship operations through CII regulations, more stakeholders will be brought into the maritime decarbonisation conversation to face the mounting challenges.

“2023 will see a significant increase in demand for fuel flexibility as operators look to hedge against geopolitical-driven price volatility, and the need for global bunkering infrastructure development. Currently, dual fuel and dual fuel ready vessels represent 35% of the vessels on water, 57% if you go by gross tonnage. That will increase as the available fuel mix widens this year, with methanol retrofit trials beginning in earnest, and with ammonia engines becoming available in 2024,” said Bleiberg.

Beneath the domination of LNG in the dual fuel fleet and orderbook, ammonia- and methanol-ready vessels are growing in popularity and significant further growth is expected in the coming months.

“2023 is likely to be a year of very rapid methanol growth.”
“If there was one word to describe 2023 I would choose acceleration…We know 2023 will be a year of profound change,” said Bleiberg.