Chinese group Cosco has significantly increased its use of exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) over the past 12 months, according to Alphaliner’s annual report on scrubber utilisation by shipping lines. The Chinese group was the biggest mover during the year, adding 417,827 teu in scrubber-equipped tonnage in 2024. This sees the group rise from eighth to fifth in the scrubber tonnage rankings by capacity. Until now, Cosco had been a low user of this technology, with only 10% of its fleet equipped two years ago, a percentage that has now risen to 30%. Among the others, the installation of scrubbers on 16 new conventionally powered vessels delivered in 2024 continues, including six megamaxes from China.
Meanwhile, a further 300,000 TEU of scrubber-equipped tonnage will be delivered to the Chinese group in 2025-2028, including OOCL’s 16,828 TEU series of 10 maxi-neo-panamaxes ‘flower’ and Cosco’s series of six 13,600 TEU vessels to be delivered in 2027. The total number of ‘scrubber’-equipped vessels in the global containership fleet peaked at 1,385 vessels in early 2025, equivalent to 12,680,166 TEU. This represents an increase of 263 units or 2,427,799 TEU on the previous year. The share of the total fleet is now 41%, up from 36% a year ago.
MSC, in the lead
The top 10 carriers worldwide, with the exception of Israel’s ZIM, increased their share of scrubber-equipped vessels in 2024. MSC has by far the largest number of scrubber-equipped containerships, with 352 units of 3,664,610 teu. Evergreen consolidated its position as the carrier with the greatest commitment to scrubbers: the Taiwanese line added almost 229,080 teu of EGCS capacity in 2024, raising its total share from 84% at the end of 2023 to over 90% for the first time (91.6%). As a result, Evergreen now has more scrubber-equipped vessels (181) than Maersk (152), despite its much smaller size.
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