The port of Rotterdam will offer a port fee reduction for container ships that fuel with sustainable marine fuels as part of the launched Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) initiative. But the port fee discount would amount to less than 0.1pc of the increased low-carbon bunker bill.
Rotterdam’s port fee discount could cost the port up to €500,000 ($527,200) in total. To qualify, a ship has to bunker alternative fuels in Rotterdam with at least 90pc reduction in greenhouse gases, such as green methanol or green ammonia. Rotterdam has also determined that discount would not apply to bio-blended fuel oil, marine gas oil, or marine diesel oil, “as that market is already mature in Rotterdam”.
ZEMBA, a retailer coalition, issued a request for proposals in September seeking bids from container ship companies willing to use marine fuels with 90pc less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fossil fuels on a well-to-wake basis. ZEMBA is looking to move at least 600,000 twentyfoot-equivalent units (TEU) over a three-year period, which amounts to about 280,000t of marine fuel.
In northwest Europe, bio-methanol was pegged at $2,384/t very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO)-equivalent, or 3.9 times the price of VLSFO at an average $610/t in September, Argus data showed. Green ammonia was pegged at $2,655/t VLSFO-equivalent, or 4.4 times, and hydrogen at $2,492/t VLSFO-equivalent, or 4.1 times the price of VLSFO for the same period. At the September price snapshot, 280,000t of VLSFO would have cost $170.67mn compared with about $667.56mn for biomethanol, $743.43mn for ammonia and $697.48mn for hydrogen.
By Stefka Wechsler
