Star Bulk Recovers $250m Scrubber Investment

Greek dry bulk shipping firm Star Bulk Carriers has earned back its $250 million exhaust gas cleaning scrubber investment, within a span of 2.5 years.

Concept

The Greek bulker owner has been a staunch supporter of scrubbers in order to meet the IMO 2020 sulphur cap. Hence, it had a fleet of 114 bulkers fitted with scrubbers already in 2020.

The company explained that the prescribed scrubber investment included all related capital expenditures. Additionally, the corresponding off-hire cost to install the scrubbers.

“With our fleet (128 owned vessels) being ~94% scrubber fitted and the current Hi5 spread at very healthy levels, these scrubbers should augment our profitability for the foreseeable future… With a limited supply of vessels, the upcoming environmental regulations curbing vessel ordering and speeds, our competitive operating costs and our scrubber-equipped fleet, we remain optimistic on the income earning prospects of our company despite a seemingly uncertain macroeconomic environment,”
Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer of Star Bulk

Scrubbers have been a popular solution among owners due to their capability to bring premiums to owners. Particularly, they allow continuing burning of high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) against very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).

The company reported a strong performance in the second quarter of 2020, earning a net income of $ 200 million. In the meantime, compared to a net income for the second quarter of 2021 of $124.2 million.

Star Bulk added that its Board of Directors has established an ESG Committee, which will guide and support management on ESG-related matters.

Green Corridor

To remind, earlier this year Star Bulk joined a landmark initiative. Thus, aiming to create the first-of-its-kind green corridor between Australia and East Asia for shipping iron ore.

The initiative was launched by a consortium led by the Global Maritime Forum. The consortium also includes British-Australian resources company BHP, Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto and German dry bulk shipping company Oldendorff Carriers.

Speaking about the joint green corridor project, Charis Plakantonaki, Chief Strategy Officer of Star Bulk Carriers said that the objective is to sponsor zero-emission shipping of iron ore from Australia to East Asia. The route accounts for more than 22 metric tons of CO₂ equivalence each year. In other words, more than 2.5% of global shipping emissions.

Source: StarBulk