NYK joins GCMD as first Japan-headquartered strategic partner to accelerate shipping’s decarbonisation
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) announced the signing of a five-year Strategic Partnership agreement. This significant partnership further boosts the centre’s capacity and efforts to conduct pilots and trials of low-carbon solutions to provide clear and specific pathways to decarbonisation of 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 is a forward-leaning global shipping company that carries a progressive outlook on decarbonisation and 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 decarbonise shipping.
NYK is the first shipping company in Japan to independently obtain an approval-in-principle (AiP) for an ammonia bunkering vessel (ABV) from ClassNK and is on track to retrofit Sakigake, an LNG-fuelled tugboat, with an ammonia-fuelled engine. The resulting ammonia-fuelled 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 (AFAGC) 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 trialled 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 non-profit organisation. Our 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 centre level, in addition to more than 80 partners that engage at the project level.
Strategically located in Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub and second largest container port, GCMD aims to help the industry eliminate GHG emissions by shaping standards for future fuels, piloting low-carbon solutions in an end-to-end manner under real-world operations conditions, financing first-of-a-kind projects, and fostering collaboration across sectors.
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) was founded in 1885 and is one of the world's leading transportation companies. At the end of March 2023, the NYK Group was operating 811 major ocean vessels, as well as fleets of planes and trucks. The company's shipping fleet includes 343 bulk carriers, 122 car carriers, 54 container ships (including semi-containerships), 86 LNG carriers (including those owned by equity method affiliates), 70 tankers, 36 wood-chip carriers, one cruise ship, and 99 other ships (including shuttle tankers and multipurpose and project cargo vessels).
