Shipping’s decarbonisation has been the main driving force behind new regulations over recent years and inevitably that affects shipowners’ thinking when ordering new vessels. However, whilst the future may be a decarbonised one with ships running only on hydrogen and ammonia, the fact is that most ships in the world fleet are still reliant on oil fuels for their operation.
Even when it is considered that in 2022, alternatively-fuelled ships appeared to dominate the new orders, there is no reason to think that the dominance of oil will end anytime soon. A Clarksons Research report on 2022 new orders shows 61% of tonnage could run on alternative fuels. But that figure was achieved by tonnage and in terms of numbers that only accounts for 35% of the orders.