Drewry and the European Shippers’ Council (ESC) have defined and published a simplified BAF indexing mechanism and bunker charge guide to help shippers monitor and control bunker charges as shipping lines switch to the more expensive bunkers required under the IMO 2020 low-sulphur regulation.
The mechanism is the result of the ESC-Drewry IMO toolkit reference group, a 10 European shipper experts, Drewry and the ESC tasked with gathering views and best practices on IMO 2020 low-sulphur fuel-related topics.
The ESC-Drewry IMO 2020 toolkit and its indexing mechanism is expected to help improve transparency and fairness in how extra fuel costs incurred by shipping lines and forwarders due to the new regulation are passed on to exporters and importers. Independently of this initiative, Drewry has also developed an IMO cost impact calculator for shippers who are reviewing their BAFs, which quantifies bunker consumption per trade lane and per container for their main carriers.
