Container transport is the most energy-friendly way of moving goods

AP Moller goes green and spreads the news
David Hughes, Business Times 28 May 08;

DANISH shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk made a lot last week of its efforts to become more environmentally friendly. The company says that increased energy efficiency led to a significant decrease of the CO2 emissions from its fleet. It says that this applies to both container vessels and tankers.

In six years, from 2002-2007, the average CO2 emissions for transport of a container has decreased by 8.9 per cent.

Last year alone, the decrease was about 3 per cent, according to the newly published 'Environmental Report 2007 AP Moller-Maersk Vessels'. Based on its experience so far, Moller-Maersk container shipping arm Maersk Line has increased its previous target decreasing CO2 emissions by 5 to 10 per cent.

Moller-Maersk is not alone among the major shipowners in attempting to improve its environmental performance, and 'reduce its carbon footprint'. But there is no doubt that the company is taking green issues very seriously.

The report covers a total of 323 owned vessels, but not chartered vessels. The report also describes the AP Moller-Maersk environment management, the results for 2007 and the continued effort to minimise the fuel consumption and air emissions from the vessels.

'The less fuel we use, the less CO2 we emit. This is good for the environment and economically beneficial to us, as environmental initiatives often go hand in hand with commercial advantages,' says company technical director Robert Pedersen.

With heavy fuel oil prices of over US$600 a tonne, companies hardly need any further incentive to save fuel. For Moller-Maersk, a reduction in fuel consumption in just its container business of 5 per cent would mean a saving of 1.5 billion Denmark kroner (S$430 million) at current fuel prices and exchange rates.

While Moller-Maersk's fuel savings are very welcome it should be realised that we are not, generally, talking about making existing ships use less fuel. Partly, we are talking about new ships coming into service with more efficient machinery. The Moller-Maersk fleet is getting younger, which generally means increased energy use.

In 1970, 30 newbuildings joined the company's fleet. Most of all, we are talking about economies of scale.

Targeted effort

The company claims that decreased CO2 emission is the result of a 'targeted innovative effort' but it adds, 'so far it is particularly the use of larger vessels and a continued renewal of the fleet which results in the improvement'.

'The environment is a focus area for us, and therefore we have, among others, set up an innovation team, which is working on more than 100 projects targeting increased environmentally friendly shipping. These include optimising hulls, propellers and paint.'

The company claims that its largest container vessels, the PS-class ships such as Emma Maersk which can carry 11,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units), have set a new standard for energy efficiency. These ships, the company says, emit only half as much CO2 per container transported as the considerably smaller 3,700 TEU L-class vessels.

Put another way, an L-class ship uses 1KW to carry one tonne about 43 km. An S-class ship takes the same weight some 72 km using the same energy. Those figures underline the fact that container transport represents by far the most energy- friendly way of transporting goods.

A Boeing 747, according to Maersk, carries a tonne of cargo some 6 km on 1KW while a truck manages about 15km and a diesel railway locomotive around 26km.

These comparisons explain why industry representatives get frustrated when politicians, especially EU ones, attack shipping for not doing enough to reduce its carbon footprint.

And it also explains why, like Moller-Maersk, shipping lines are now more willing to publicise what they are achieving.