News / HMM 'greenest' carrier again in Xeneta carbon-emission league table

HMM has emerged as the ‘greenest’ North Europe-Far East backhaul line in the latest Xeneta ‘naming and faming’, following its victory in the backhaul US-Far East trades in June.

Shipping lines were evaluated according to Xeneta and Marine Benchmark’s Carbon Emission Index (CEI) score, derived from a CO2e-per-tonne-km framework.

It’s the methodology critics of the IMO’s carbon intensity indicator (CII) say should be used instead.

HMM’s Q2 CEI score of 78.2 put the South Korean carrier ahead of its competitors by a margin of 17.4 points above the tradelane’s average, as well as 10 points ahead of its nearest rival, Evergreen.

Various factors were involved, including HMM vessels moving slower than the tradelane average, by some 2.6 knots, and that the average age of its ships on the route is just 2.8 years, versus the 4.1 year average. And its box ship capacity was second to that of Evergreen; the average HMM vessel being 21,600 teu, of which, with a fill factor of 78.8%, a high proportion was full.

From a broader perspective, Xeneta said CEI efficiencies on the North Europe to Far East tradelane overall had improved since last year, to an average of 95.6 during Q1 23, a 6.8 point increase. This was due to an increase in fill factor to 74.6%.

It remains to be seen whether HMM will be able to maintain its place, given the deluge of new tonnage set to cascade onto trades like these.