Giving his keynote address, Pavan Chhabra, Head of Hubs \u2013 Europe at Maersk, noted that steamships did not reach full dominance until a full century after the transition began; the transition from steam to fossil fuel took 50 to 60 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are moving into a new transition and time is shorter. We don\u2019t have 50 or 60 years in front of us,\u201d he warned. \u201cThis is the first generation and also the last generation that has to deal with the transition. But when we put our hearts and minds to it, we will get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Discussing progress so far, he was optimistic: \u201cFive years ago, there was zero tonnage on green fuel. Today we have 170 ships on the orderbook globally. It\u2019s not a linear curve \u2013 there is going to be a gradual slope and then I think there is going to be lift-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chhabra outlined Maersk\u2019s commitment and strategy for decarbonisation through the business and continued investments in the transition to green over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Maersk has opted for green methanol as its preferred choice for newbuilds; it is investing in EVs and focusing on low-carbon air and logistics operations.<\/p>\n
On the ocean side, said Chhabra, there are \u2018two levers\u2019 to play with.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, the assets we deploy; there is a lot to do with design for retrofits of scrubbers but also newbuilds. Second, do the customers buy into the concept \u2013 are they willing to pay an additional price point for going green?\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without such a willingness, \u201cwe need to make the first move\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Maersk took delivery of its first methanol fuel enabled vessel, the 2,100 teu Lara Maersk in 2003; the vessel is operating in the Baltic, mainly serving lifestyle and retail customers. A whole new generation of methanol-enabled vessels is on order for delivery through to 2026-27.<\/p>\n
Chhabra outlined the challenges of securing an efficient fuel supply, as well as the training and safety aspects. Green methanol is a first step and Maersk will be trying out other fuels, he added.<\/p>\n
He compared the early green fuel adopters to the introduction of the iPhone in 2007: \u201cI am pretty sure that 5-6% of the people who use iPhones today stood outside the store then to get it. We are seeing early adopters [of green fuels] queuing up, but we will start to reach the tipping point at 18% [of shipments loaded],\u201d he said \u2013 he noted that a company can put the assets out there but progress depends on customers buying into the option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe we will hit a 25% target \u2013 not an asset target but when customers get on board \u2013 in 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Previous energy transitions \u2013 from sail to steam, from steam to fossil fuels \u2013 took decades, but in the transition from fossil fuels to green fuels, we don\u2019t have decades to spare, delegates were told on Day 2 of the Coastlink conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,7],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-news-coastlink"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/coastlink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}