Ship&Offshore | Issue 04/2025
ABS chief warns of carbon levy ‘wild card’
Christopher J. Wiernicki, chairman and CEO of classification society ABS, has warned that uncertainty about the IMO’s proposed carbon levy is acting as a brake on investment in shipping. This clearly has important implications for new ship contracts – bulk carrier orders, for example, have fallen to their lowest level in three decades so far this year. Ordering was down by 92% year-on-year over the first two months, with not a single bulk carrier order placed in February, Bimco has reported. The shipowners’ body cited ‘widespread uncertainties’ as one of the reasons for the largest decline in dry bulk contracting in more than three decades....