SIMIC

Xeneta’s analysis Carbon Emissions Index (CEI) has described the Taiwanese container shipping line Yang Ming as the container industry’s ‘emission hero’ for all relevant CEI-covered trades in Q4 2022.

Michele Labrut | Apr 06, 2023

Xeneta said that Yang Ming was the industry’s only major player to score below the CEI performance baseline of 100 (set in Q1 2018) across all CEI routes.

The analysis is part of Xeneta’s recently launched heroes and villains review, a campaign to rank the environmental performance of carriers across the world’s top 13 shipping trades.

The index covers 13 main routes for liners, tracking movements and calculating emission footprints.  A baseline of 100 is used to score carriers in relation to the trade lane average at the start of 2018.

According to the CEI, Yang Ming found the industry’s best balance between sailing speed, fill factor and vessel size.

However, the segment posted mixed results, with some gains offset by poor performances, as the weak market impacted on filling factors, which in turn decreased overall efficiency.

The industry is moving in the right direction, but the varying scores show progress is far from straightforward. Overall, said Xeneta Shipping Analyst, Emily Stausbøll,

“There’s only one trade that has a higher CEI for Q4 2022 than Q1 2018, and that’s the US East Coast to North Europe (a CEI of 108),” she commented. “However, we are seeing some quarter-on-quarter setbacks – such as on trades out of the Far East, where the CEI scores worsened (increased) on four out of the five main trades. To uncover why, we need to consider overall market conditions.”

The CEI shows that there was a drop in speed on most trades, in line with the deteriorating market conditions. The best performers reduced their speed enough to make up for lower filling factors, while those that didn’t decrease speed enough fared worst.

Moving from the corridors to the individual carriers, Stausbøll says there is a clear winner amongst the industry’s star players.

“Yang Ming has shown its commitment, and skill, when it comes to improving its environmental profile,” she stated.

“All the other carriers scored over 100 on at least one trade for the quarter, while Yang Ming’s highest was 97.5, between North Europe and the Far East. At the other end of the scale, they managed an impressive 60.85 CEI figure for the Far East to US East Coast corridor.“