Comment / Analysis: 'Chicken and egg' – the EU emissions trading system conundrum

Port Said Suez Canal Container Terminal Egypt

Everyone, it seems, is going to be confused about the EC’s forthcoming emissions trading system (ETS): judging by the initial “stick a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing” attempt by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to calculate possible surcharge levels (and the complete silence from their peers), shipping lines have the vaguest of vague notions.

That means cargo owners and freight forwarders will, inevitably, understand even less, just as ports are worried, as they always claim to ...