NYK Joins Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) have announced the signing of a five-year Strategic Partnership agreement.
The partnership boosts the center's efforts to conduct pilots and trials of low-carbon solutions for the global shipping industry.
Japan is one of the top three shipowning countries in the world, and Japanese merchant vessels account for around 11% of world tonnage.
Numbers from Clarksons Green Transition Team further indicate that Japan leads other nations in alternative-fuel-ready vessel orders, constituting about 10% of the global equivalent.
As the largest shipowner in Japan, NYK undertakes a whole of value chain approach, bringing together the regulatory authorities in Japan as well as key stakeholders in the private sector to work collaboratively to decarbonize shipping.
NYK is the first shipping company in Japan to independently obtain an approval-in-principle (AiP) for an ammonia bunkering vessel from ClassNK and is on track to retrofit Sakigake, an LNG-fueled tugboat, with an ammonia-fueled engine. The resulting ammonia-fueled tugboat (A-Tug) is expected to commence operation in 2024.
Additionally, NYK is making efforts with partner companies to deliver an oceangoing ammonia-fueled ammonia gas carrier by 2026. NYK was therefore a natural partner in the GCMD-commissioned ammonia bunkering pilot safety study that was completed in April. As one of 22 study partners, NYK contributed significantly to the safety study by sharing the learnings from its experience with ammonia.
For GCMD’s pilot on developing an assurance framework for drop-in biofuels, NYK trialed VLSFO (B24) on board Lycaste Peace in February 2023, contributing to the successful completion of the second of five supply chains of the full pilot. With this data and data from the four other supply chains, GCMD is developing a robust framework for quality and quantity assurance of drop-in biofuels and GHG accounting. GCMD is also conducting a green premium cost-benefit analysis of deploying biofuels with NYK and other partners involved in the pilot.
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) was set up on 1 August 2021 as a nonprofit organization. Its strategic partners include the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), BHP, BW Group, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Foundation Det Norske Veritas, Ocean Network Express, Seatrium, bp, Hapag-Lloyd and NYK. Beyond the strategic partners, GCMD has brought on board 14 partners that engage at the center level, in addition to more than 80 partners that engage at the project level.
