Enormously high bunker costs are forc-ing shipping companies to take action. While earlier the ship's speed was the key factor, now it is in the shipping industry's interest to keep particularly fuel consump-tion as low as possible to save costs. Engine manufacturers adapt to this development by increasingly designing engines which run slower and therefore consume less fuel. This strategy also applies in case the specific ves-sel is only half loaded. Such drives provide lower power ranges indeed, but in times of slow steaming this is of negligible effect. Further requirements for today's engines are reduced maintenance efforts and asso-ciated lower costs. With stricter environ-mental regulations Coming into force brief- ly, emissions are a factor to be taken into account by the manufacturers in the evolu-tion of new engine technologies as well.
展开▼
