Shipowners face bankruptcy if customers do not soak up the additional fuel costs created by new emissions laws arriving in 2020, warns Niels G. Stolt-Nielsen.

The Stolt-Nielsen chief executive said present fuel price spreads would add $150m per year to his company's bunker bill in 2020.

“It is clear that unless we can pass that cost onto our customers, the industry will be going out of business very quickly,” Stolt-Nielsen said during an earnings presentation today.