Tanker owners are seeing the light over scrubbers as vessels fitted with the emissions technology fetch higher charter rates than those without them.

The number of tankers ordered with scrubbers rose to 171 in July from 135 in June, according to Stine Mundal, who heads classification society DNV GL's work on scrubber use.

Of all the ship classes, "oil tankers are the segment that jumped the most" in terms of scrubber uptake, Mundal said.