Falling container CO2 emissions – dip or trend?

According to the carbon emissions index (CEI), a benchmarking tool created by Xeneta and Marine Benchmark, the biggest fall was recorded in the Far East to the US East Coast corridor, with a 21.2% improvement. Yang Ming Marine Transportation emerged as the ‘emissions hero’ for the second consecutive quarter.

Xeneta shipping analyst, Emily Stausbøll, cautions against complacency, pointing out that it is too early to say this dip will become a trend.

“Global shippers looking to shrink the carbon footprints of their logistics chains will be delighted to see some meaningful falls in emissions on key freight corridors,” she said.

“But the question is, what happens when the market improves? Will we see commercial considerations trump environmental ones? Time will tell how committed individual carriers are here.”

Stausbøll says that much of the improvements are down to carriers reducing speeds with the US West Coast to Far East lane (a backhaul) seeing a reduction of almost 1 knot, which, when combined with an increase in vessel sizes and a stable filling factor, enabled a 11.3% CEI improvement from Q4 2022.

“This strategy, it’s fair to say, is driven by business rather than environmental considerations,” said Stausbøll.

Despite the favourable current trend, there’s a mixed long-term perspective, with four trades recording worse CEI scores in Q1 2023 than in Q1 2018. The Mediterranean to US East Coast trade is the worst-performing with a 13.6% higher CEI.

The best individual carrier is Yang Ming, which also recorded the best CEIs in Q4 2022. The Taiwanese giant was the cleanest carrier (when measured by CO2 emitted per ton of cargo carried) on three trades, with OOCL and HMM securing the top spot on two trades a piece.