One of the largest Nordic ports has announced that seven shipping companies and a total of 25 ships have signed up for its environmental discount scheme.
Cleaner ships will receive discounts of 10% and 30% on harbour dues.
Vessels scoring 30 points or less on the Environmental Ship Index and Clean Shipping Index qualify for the lower figure, while those using LNG get the higher one.
“This method of saving money and highlighting environmental dedication is appreciated by our customers,” says Edvard Molitor, Port of Gothenburg (PoG) senior environmental manager, “They appreciate we have joined an established system that makes it easier for more to join in.”
Although 25 seems a small number, the system’s flexibility was illustrated when PoG told IHS Maritime that DFDS’s six ships did not meet the requirements at the start of the year, but now did. “We estimated the discount for 2015 based on 2014’s traffic and didn’t expect shipping lines to be so quick to conform to the indexes”, the port said.
The 25 are frequent callers so make up a disproportionate number, 1,826, of the ports 11,000 annual calls – or about one in six, the port told IHS Maritime. All the above qualify for the 10% lower fee, but in 2016, the first LNG ships will start calling at PoG. Swedish Terntank has four 15,000 dwt LNG product tankers being built in China, with the first due to be delivered in 2016.
“LNG is a good way of cutting emissions, but requires investment. By giving LNG a 30% discount we can help make LNG attractive,” concludes Molitor.
“We expect (in 2016) LNG-powered ships calling 1-2 times weekly,” said Dan-Erik Andersson, Vice-President of Operations at PoG Energy Port. Furetank Nad Thun Tankers are due to get LNG ship in 2016 too.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.