Ports face defining decade in fuel transition
The global race to decarbonise shipping is fast becoming a race to prepare ports, according to Lloyd’s Register’s latest Fuel for Thought: Ports report. While shipowners continue to order alternative-fuel vessels at record pace,…
In the report’s foreword, Kamran Ul Haq, senior vice president of LR Ports Advisory, noted that the shipping industry’s fuel transition is already underway, but warned that vessel demand and supply chain readiness are progressing at very different speeds.
“That gap creates both risk and opportunity,” Ul Haq said. “Ports that wait for certainty risk falling behind competitors that are already building safety frameworks, licensing regimes and partnerships. Ports that invest too early risk assets that are never fully used.”
The report notes that readiness is determined long before the first vessel arrives. According to LR, successful alternative-fuel operations are built on risk assessment, regulation, workforce training and collaboration among port authorities, shipowners, fuel suppliers, emergency services and classification societies.
“No port needs to prepare for every fuel at once,” Ul Haq said. “Every port does need a plan.”
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