Two vessels of the Dubai-listed Gulf Navigation Holding fleet will be undergoing upgrades for IMO 2020 compliance during their respective mandatory five-year maintenance at the dry docks in the third quarter of 2018.
"Another important investment expense, for which we have allocated a substantial amount of the company’s revenues in this quarter, is the quality upgrade of our ships while they went through the mandatory five-year maintenance,” said H.E. Khamis Juma Buamim, Board Member, Managing Director and Group CEO of Gulf Navigation Holding in the firm’s latets financial statement.
Buamim noted the vessels will be dry docked for a minimum of two months; scrubbers to reduce sulphur emissions and ballast water treatment systems to prevent biological pollution will be retrofitted to the ships during this phase.
The upgrades will enable the vessels to get long-term contracts from leading producers of petrochemical derivatives, which will look for environmentally-friendly ships that will not be banned from entering the markets that are bound by the new standards.
“This will help our vessels comply with IMO's standards and give us an advantage to get new contracts in established markets such as the European Union and North America,” he explains.
“Many companies are expected to withdraw from these markets because they will not afford the expenses to comply with the new technical specifications.
“We have also installed new advanced engine fans that reduce fuel consumption by 5%. Taking this step now helps us avoid having to use higher-priced, less-available low-sulphur fuels and thus risking higher operating costs and the possibility of our vessels to stop and not generate revenues while waiting for fuel.”
Photo credit: Gulf Navigation Holding
Published: 15 August, 2018
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