Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping

The effectiveness of the IMO's sulfur cap regulation in January 2020 disrupted the established business paradigm in some maritime shipping sectors. In the absence of a protection scheme by policymakers, the business paradigm in dry bulk shipping sector shifted, because the additional cost assoc...

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Main Author: Christos Sigalas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-01-01
Series:Maritime Transport Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X22000144
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author Christos Sigalas
author_facet Christos Sigalas
author_sort Christos Sigalas
collection DOAJ
description The effectiveness of the IMO's sulfur cap regulation in January 2020 disrupted the established business paradigm in some maritime shipping sectors. In the absence of a protection scheme by policymakers, the business paradigm in dry bulk shipping sector shifted, because the additional cost associated with the more expensive IMO sulfur compliant fuel had been passed to ship-owners, instead of charterers. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the business paradigm disruption that was caused by the IMO 2020, by examining the covariance between the freight rates and their Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rates around the IMO 2020 effectiveness date, as well as to quantify the financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation to ship-owners, by modeling TCE, maximizing TCE function, and running TCE sensitivity analyses under various scenarios of price spread between the high sulfur and IMO compliant fuel oils before and after the introduction of the IMO 2020. The results of this study indicate that increased price of IMO compliant fuel oils and charterers’ bargaining power, had curtailed ship-owners’ gross profit margins. Although not a silver bullet, slow steaming can alleviate shrunken profit margins. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers in calibrating future emission-related regulations to be equitable for all stakeholders engaged in seaborne transportation.
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spelling doaj.art-65614c904719469b8c00db61b7dba0732022-12-22T04:22:23ZengElsevierMaritime Transport Research2666-822X2022-01-013100064Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shippingChristos Sigalas0Assistant Professor, Department of Maritime Transport & Logistics, School of Business and Economics, Deree – The American College of Greece, 6, Gravias Str., 15342 Athens, Greece; Financial Manager, Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp., 154 Leof. Vouliagmenis, Glifada 16674, GreeceThe effectiveness of the IMO's sulfur cap regulation in January 2020 disrupted the established business paradigm in some maritime shipping sectors. In the absence of a protection scheme by policymakers, the business paradigm in dry bulk shipping sector shifted, because the additional cost associated with the more expensive IMO sulfur compliant fuel had been passed to ship-owners, instead of charterers. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the business paradigm disruption that was caused by the IMO 2020, by examining the covariance between the freight rates and their Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rates around the IMO 2020 effectiveness date, as well as to quantify the financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation to ship-owners, by modeling TCE, maximizing TCE function, and running TCE sensitivity analyses under various scenarios of price spread between the high sulfur and IMO compliant fuel oils before and after the introduction of the IMO 2020. The results of this study indicate that increased price of IMO compliant fuel oils and charterers’ bargaining power, had curtailed ship-owners’ gross profit margins. Although not a silver bullet, slow steaming can alleviate shrunken profit margins. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers in calibrating future emission-related regulations to be equitable for all stakeholders engaged in seaborne transportation.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X22000144IMO 2020Disruptive regulationsCompliance policiesCompliance costTime Charter EquivalentMaritime shipping
spellingShingle Christos Sigalas
Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
Maritime Transport Research
IMO 2020
Disruptive regulations
Compliance policies
Compliance cost
Time Charter Equivalent
Maritime shipping
title Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
title_full Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
title_fullStr Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
title_full_unstemmed Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
title_short Financial impact of the IMO 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
title_sort financial impact of the imo 2020 regulation on dry bulk shipping
topic IMO 2020
Disruptive regulations
Compliance policies
Compliance cost
Time Charter Equivalent
Maritime shipping
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666822X22000144
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