Page 52: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2024)

INTERVIEW

To watch the full video with Martin Kroger,

Shipping Conundrums,

CEO of the German

Shipowners' Association, scan the QR code: from the Red Sea to

China [& beyond]

While in Hamburg, Germany for SMM, we had the chance to visit with

Martin Kroger, CEO, German Shipowners' Association, an organization with nearly 300 member companies and 1,800 ships under its banner. It was a targeted discussion on the topics driving Germany shipowners today, from decarbonization, ship security and the Houthi’s ? ring rockets and drones at commercial ships in the Red Sea.

By Greg Trauthwein

How much is decarbonization impacting your ship- drogen, you will only transport your fuel, you won't transport owners today? any cargo. That, of course, is not the solution. [Our concerns

Shipping is moving quite fast towards 2050, when all of inter- are many]: Where does the fuel come from? What kind of fuel national shipping is supposed to become carbon-neutral. We are do we have? How can we handle it safely on board with our pretty clear in German shipping: without a decarbonized fuel, seafarers? How do we get the quantity of the fuel that we need? without a fuel that is produced in the green way and that doesn't emit any CO emissions when it's burned, we won't decarbon- What do you see as some of the opportunities to get over 2 ize. Energy ef? ciency [only brings you] a little closer to decar- these future fuel challenges?

bonization. You may sail slower, you have a new propeller; but Look at the liner companies on the container trades, their it will only bring you so far. So far we are on a reduction path traf? c is point to point. The liner companies are a special area of about 30% of CO emissions; we are certain we can reach of shipping, as they own about half of their own ? eet, and the 2 another 10%, but the last bit is the fuels … and that's the most other half they charter in. We are looking at what they're doing dif? cult part, because we need a lot of fuel, as we burn about with their own ships, the direction they are taking with the new- 300 million tons of fossil fuel per year in the international ? eet. builds. You see that methanol plays a big role at the moment for

The energy density of the fuels we use today is quite high, it's new ship orders. With ammonia, we are not there yet, because a good product that we burn, except the emissions. Compare we don't have the ammonia ready engine on the market … yet. it to hydrogen. If you would run a vessel today purely on hy- We expect that in the next two years. And then of course you 52 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2024

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