Following recent round table discussions, the participating stakeholders in a task force established by the Global Maritime Forum (GMF) have issued a joint statement, setting the priorities for industry action to accelerate the development of the Australia-East Asia Iron Ore Green Corridor.
In June 2022, the task force was formed with 13 members of the Getting to Zero Coalition and leading Australian shipping and energy stakeholders, convened and chaired by the Global Maritime Forum, to support the development of the Australia-East Asia Iron Ore Green Corridor. Maritime green corridors are routes on which the development and deployment of net-zero-emission shipping solutions [such as clean ammonia as a shipping fuel] are enabled by private and public actions.
As a part of the taskforce’s objective to accelerate the development of the Australia-East Asia Iron Ore Green Corridor the group came together for an in-person roundtable in Sydney to launch a dialogue between future fuel suppliers, ship owners, cargo owners and investors, and identify and agree upon industry action areas that should be prioritised to match clean ammonia supply with demand.
Hosted in association with Maritime Industry Australia Ltd (MIAL)’s Maritime Decarbonisation Summit, the roundtable welcomed local stakeholders from clean energy finance, research, and consultancy sectors. Participants included resource companies (BHP and Rio Tinto), shipping companies (Cargill, NYK Line, Oldendorff Carriers and Star Bulk), future fuel suppliers (Fortescue Future Industries, InterContinental Energy, Woodside Energy and Yara Clean Ammonia), as well as other important stakeholders (AMOG Consulting, Bureau Veritas, ClassNK, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Maritime Industry Australia, Scaling Green Hydrogen Cooperative Research Centre, and Pilbara Ports Authority).
Several industry action areas were highlighted as key for matching clean ammonia supply with demand, including evaluating and quantifying fuel demand and supply, ensuring the safe handling of ammonia, and coordinating investments across the value chain. The participants discussed challenges to the industry actions, including issues like cross-sector competition for clean fuels, the need for government support and public acceptance of ammonia as a fuel.
As a pathway towards establishing the Australia-East Asia Iron Ore Green Corridor, immediate next steps include the finalisation of the ongoing assessment of clean ammonia fuel demand and supply. This will include assessing the success factors for the Corridor’s development – including fuel production, bunkering, potential commercial structures, and high-level regulatory and certification requirements – and their associated timeframes. The assessment, scheduled for publishing in early 2023, will be undertaken by a consortium led by GMF in collaboration with BHP, Rio Tinto, Oldendorff Carriers, and Star Bulk. In the longer term, strategic engagement with public and private sector actors in East Asia, including China, Japan and South Korea, will be critical as a counterpart to the work being undertaken by industry participants in Australia.
GMF Senior Programme Lead on Decarbonisation, and chair of the Roundtable, Marieke Beckmann, said: “There is significant and concrete interest in establishing the Australia-East Asia Iron Ore Green Corridor from industry. Coordination between the maritime and energy sectors is critical in order to overcome challenges and scale impact. Industry alignment is also important to enable strategic collaboration with the public sector, which could be the main difference-makers going to support first movers in bridging the cost gap for zero-emission fuels.”
