Stena Bulk Blog

The shipping community faces a challenge that requires us to consider how we alter our entire energy needs and move to cleaner fuels once they are developed. The speed at which shipping must manage this energy transition leaves no time for waiting to see what others do. 

In order to achieve the ambitious goal to decarbonise our industry – a goal that Stena Bulk fully supports – we believe we must take every action necessary to reach that vision. 

We think that central to this is a new mindset that sees risk as progressive, prioritises action, and avoids passive assessment. Shipping is often accused of trying to win the ‘race to be second’, but we believe that at times, and particularly around decarbonisation, this mentality holds the whole industry back and slows down development and innovation.

As a progressive voice in shipping with a focus on sustainability excellence and a vision to have a positive sustainability impact, we constantly push boundaries in order to innovate and champion multiple pathways - even if not all of them will reach full market fruition - because being pioneers means not waiting for others.

We are backed by a strong history of entrepreneurial spirit and we take the view that taking on big challenges is in line with being commercially sensible against the backdrop of a radically changing maritime sector – and that taking these challenges on now will drive further commercial success in the future. 

As industry leaders and innovators, we see pushing boundaries as entrepreneurial. We want to ‘do the right thing’ in the sustainability innovation space because we see it as intrinsically aligned with a customer-centric approach to market. This flexible and bold approach allows us to meet market demands, provide an economical solution to those needs and shift shipping’s sustainability dial, all at the same time.

We are committed to technological investment, which of course includes the research and development of energy efficient new low carbon fuels, many of which remain in their infancy. We are advantaged by having access to our Stena Sphere partner organisation Stena Teknik, which helps us guide and realise a range of newbuild and retrofit projects and allows us to see future fuels trials as sensible and achievable, rather than speculative.

Agility is vital for us. While the energy transition is – and will continue to be - hugely challenging for shipping, especially without the same level of access to renewables enjoyed on land, it also offers huge opportunities for those who take a pioneering position.

Being one of the leaders in the industry  , we always support the idea that shipping needs to embrace more partnership and collaboration to tackle the industry’s biggest challenges. Decarbonisation is no exception, and we always welcome initiatives that allow us to join forces with other industry partners to facilitate innovation and progress in this space.

As an example of our innovative approach, we recently announced the commencement of steel cutting for our state-of-the-art IMOIIMeMAX methanol-fuelled 49,900 DWT vessel Stena Pro Patria, which will be the first of the three methanol-fuelled tankers to be built under our joint venture with Proman Shipping.

Göteborg, February 2021
Erik Hånell, President & CEO at Stena Bulk