Attica installs scrubbers on four of its ships

The four passenger-vehicle ferries of Attica A.E. Holdings have been equipped with scrubbers to reduce sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions.

According to the commitments made by the company during the issuance of the Common Bond Loan (in 2020), amounting to 175 million euros, it had at its disposal at least 25.9 million euros for the purchase and installation of specialized equipment for scrubbers,  gaseous emissions control equipment and especially for sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions on four selected vessels by the end of the first half of 2021.

The day before yesterday, it was announced that the installation of scrubbers on BLUE STAR MYCONOS was completed and the relevant certification was received from the monitoring classification board. This was the fourth ship in the Group in which the installation of scrubbers has been completed.

The other three ships are Blue Star Delos, Blue Star Patmos, and Superfast XI operating on the Ancona line.

It is pointed out that from the beginning of 2020 with decisions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) fuel sulfur emissions are reduced to 0.5%, which means that the ships will either consume new fuels (more expensive) with reduced sulfur content or install scrubbers that retain sulfur.

The management of Attica Group, after a thorough study of the whole situation and specifically of the coastal shipping market and the prices of existing and new (low sulfur) fuels, determined as its main strategy to continue to remain highly competitive in areas where speedboats are operating “against” their own Conventional ships, which are already consuming expensive fuel and nothing is going to change in the coming years.

Therefore, in order to maintain the competitive price between conventional and high-speed vessels, the Attica Group decided to place scrubbers on its conventional vessels operating on lines competing with high-speed vessels, such as e.g. the Cyclades line. In the second phase, it is not excluded to place scrubbers on its other four ships, which are the most costly.

Finally, it should be noted that scrubbers were placed on the ships of Minoan Lines belonging the Grimaldi Group.