Costamare is looking to spend almost five times its third-quarter profit on exhaust gas scrubbers for five ships being chartered to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

The New York-listed company may invest up to $30m total on the installations, announced today in the company's quarterly earnings report.

"The cost, it depends on the scrubber, but I would say for a large containership vessel, it could be -- and up to $6m, the total cost," chief financial officer Greg Zikos said during today's earnings call.