Maersk Line Cancels 50 Vessels Sailing To China Over Coronavirus  Since January 1

World’s largest container carrier, Maersk Line has disclosed that it cancelled about 50 sailings to China due to the dreaded coronavirus since the beginning of the year.

 Maersk CEO Soren Skou on Thursday, discussed how the coronavirus has been affecting his business with the Danish carrier cancelling 50 sailings since the Chinese New Year.

Maersk CEO Soren Skou warned that the world’s biggest ocean carrier is experiencing significant disruption at Chinese seaports due to the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We are experiencing huge pressure at [Chinese] terminals because there aren’t enough workers at the ports to move the containers around, not enough truck drivers to move the goods, and no one to receive them at the factories or warehouses,” Skou said.

Skou said Maersk estimates factories in China are operating at 50% to 60% of capacity, predicting production would ramp up to 90% by the first week of March.

The shipping line also announced plans to double the amount of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to it’s fleet  before the end of 2020.

Maersk’s current fuel consumption is split with 10% for 0.1% sulphur fuel covering ECA zones, 80% for very low sulphur fuel oil and 10% HFO.

The plan, revealed on Thursday, is to increase HFO usage to 25% by the end of 2020.

Maersk uses approximately 12m tons of bunker fuel annually so by the end of the year it could be using 3m tons of HFO, depending on delays at Chinese yards brought about by the coronavirus.

The price differential between HFO and VLSFO has now ducked below $200 per tonne.

Maersk has gradually changed its stance on scrubbers. Initially against them, as the global sulphur cap approached it decided to buy around 30 scrubber kits to trial the technology.

 It has since committed far more to the technology, as have many of its peers, especially for larger boxships. 2M partner MSC is the liner to have invested most in scrubber kits, buying around 250 units so far.

More than 10% of the world’s containership capacity was fitted with scrubbers by the start of the global sulphur cap on January 1, with analysts at Alphaliner predicting the number could grow to some 1,000 ships- equating to 10m teu – by the end of 2022.