Recently, Maersk stated that the EU’s upcoming carbon emission quota policy will, to a certain extent, allow more and more world-renowned shippers to pay extra for using green fuel for voyages. Compared with only a few key customers in 2019, Maersk has increased the number of green customers to about 300 this year. Maersk expects the number of customers paying a premium to ship containers partially using sustainable fuels to double to around 600 next year.
In addition, last month Swedish carmaker Volvo, a well-known BCO in the industry, announced that it will transport materials used to produce its cars around the world, mainly in container ships using renewable fuels. As a selected requirement, Volvo requires that all containers transported by Maersk, Kuehne and DB Schenker for Volvo will be converted to container ships using renewable fuels. Swedish carmaker Volvo has decided to move the materials it needs to make its cars across the world’s oceans primarily on container ships that run on renewable fuels.
Volvo Cars said the company transports tens of thousands of containers of production material a year, a shift that would immediately reduce fossil carbon dioxide emissions from intercontinental shipping by 55,000 tonnes a year. According to Volvo, renewable fuels reduce CO2 emissions by at least 84% compared to fossil fuels. The fuel is FAME, based on renewable and sustainable sources, mainly waste cooking oil. The fuel will be used for inbound ocean container shipments of production material from manufacturing plants in Europe and the Americas, as well as for all spare parts distributed globally via ocean container shipments. Volvo’s partners in the program include Maersk, Kuehne & Nagel and DB Schenker. As a result, all container shipments they do for Volvo Cars are switched to renewable fuels.
All clients are committed to science-based targets, meaning their decarbonization efforts follow the most recognized standards. Decarbonizing is hard, but starting with counting emissions is easy. It is understood that customers who choose Eco Delivery usually need to pay 10% to 15% more for each 40-foot container. From January 2024, when shipping is included in the EU Emissions Trading System and must pay for emissions, Maersk will impose new surcharges on customers to cover the increased costs.
At present, more and more large cargo owners in Europe and the United States, including Ikea and Volvo, have made the green emission of production enterprises and transportation and logistics enterprises a new requirement. Logistics giants have also begun to cooperate with the requirements of European and American shippers, and regard green and low-carbon as their service features.
