Singapore, 21 April 2026 – Senior executives from across shipping gathered at Singapore Maritime Week last week with a shared diagnosis: the barriers to scaling clean shipping fuels are well understood, demand intent is real, and technology pathways exist.
A panel convened by the H2Global Foundation brought together voices from across the shipping value chain, from fuel production and port infrastructure to shipowners, freight and logistics, and cargo owners, with representatives from AM Green, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, ECSA, Kühne + Nagel, and Anglo American. The discussion was moderated by Argus Media.
The panel kept returning to one question: how can H2Global's double-auction mechanism best bring all the elements together to build the market? The mechanism's ability to sign long-term offtake agreements with producers while selling products via short-term contracts makes it well suited to addressing the core challenges of market creation in shipping. For a full readout of how H2Global's mechanism can specifically overcome those challenges, see the insight brief.
Speakers acknowledged the structural deadlock. Fuel producers cannot reach final investment decisions without credible offtake. Shipowners cannot commit without supply certainty. Financiers cannot approve projects without regulatory clarity. It was argued that price, risk, and availability form a self-reinforcing deadlock rather than three distinct problems.
But the tone was not defeatist. Shipowners, it was noted, are already strongly represented in the orderbook for alternative-fuel-capable vessels, signalling that parts of the sector are preparing for the transition. Demand intent is there. Supply projects are being built. Discussions between fuel producers and shipping companies on green ammonia supply are already under way at pilot scale, in a sign of growing demand that a mechanism like H2Global's double auction could support scaling.
On green shipping corridors, there was particular optimism because aligning producers, ports, shipowners, and cargo owners around specific trade routes enables risk sharing across the chain. H2Global's double-auction mechanism can then play a decisive role in unlocking the first credible transactions.
The first transaction is of utmost importance because it gives the market confidence that supply will materialise. Some container customers are already willing to pay a green premium, and H2Global's double-auction mechanism is designed to turn that appetite into signed long-term agreements.
There was broad agreement that clean fuel markets will not form by themselves. Revenues being collected through schemes such as the EU ETS could be recycled into clean fuel deployment. However, carbon pricing alone cannot close the price gap between dirty and clean fuels; instead, carbon tax revenues should be earmarked for investment.
That is precisely the problem H2Global's double-auction mechanism is built to solve. Rather than waiting for supply and demand to find each other, it uses competitive procurement to manufacture the first credible transactions: producers bid into a long-term purchase agreement, buyers bid into a short-term sales contract, and a fund provider bridges the gap between the two.
The case for mechanisms that reduce risk across the value chain and turn fragmented interest into concrete demand came through clearly. H2Global's mechanism is designed to do exactly that. About USD 9 billion in funding has been committed, earmarked or is being considered across multiple sectors and regions by governments around the world. For clean shipping fuels, H2Global’s work is ready to scale.
Prior to the panel discussion, H2Global Foundation APAC regional representative Elisabeth Sterner set the scene by providing an analysis of the current state of play of geopolitics, fuel cost gaps, and regulation. Dr Maximilian Held, COO, introduced the H2Global Foundation and showcased the double-auction mechanism, including its success in awarding the first pilot tender for green ammonia production. Dr Jean-Marc Bonello, Head of the Shipping Initiative, then presented H2Global's insight brief, Turning price gaps into thriving clean shipping fuel markets, setting out the case for applying the double auction mechanism to shipping.