Pacific Basin CEO: We won’t be investing in any more scrubbers

Hong Kong-based dry bulk shipping company Pacific Basin has ruled out further investments in the installation of scrubbers on its ships despite reporting enviable net savings from the technology worth $23.1 million, representing 38% of its original investment.

The company decided to fit scrubbers on 28 of its owned Supramaxes back in 2019 in order to comply with the IMO 2020 global 0.5% sulphur limit that took effect on January 1, 2020. The rest of the company’s fleet of 117 ships is using low-sulphur fuel.

During the first half of 2020, the company’s ships outperformed Handysize and Supramax index rates by $2,270 and $4,250 per day, respectively. Supramax outperformance was particularly strong, partly due to the significant scrubber benefits that the company realized early in the period.