News / Adding UK port as first call will see Asia-Europe liners save on ETS fees

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Research from analyst Sea Intelligence has found that next year, Asia-North Europe services with a first port of call outside the EU – most often the UK – will allow carriers to sidestep much of their EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) obligation, with MSC potentially enjoying a saving of 47%.

UK ports are emerging as winners in the wake of ETS market distortion, with carriers adding a call at Southampton, Liverpool and Felixstowe to their Asia-North Europe schedules before calls at EU ports.

MSC’s network schedule – large enough to be compared with shipping’s big alliances Premier, Gemini and Ocean – will allow it to reduce its ETS obligation by 47% by adding a UK port as first call on five of its seven Asia-North Europe rotations, says Sea Intelligence.

For MSC’s Asia-Med routes, first calls at Egypt’s Damietta and Abu Qir, and Turkey’s Iskenderun appear to serve the same purpose.

“MSC’s network design leads them to cut the reportable distance between Asia and Europe almost in half,” noted Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.

Meanwhile, for the Premier Alliance, comprising HMM, ONE and Yang Ming, routes give a saving of 32% next year. First calls at Southampton, Abu Qir and Damietta also prove popular on these Asia-Europe rotations.

This compares with CMA CGM, COSCO, OOCL and Evergreen’s Ocean Alliance, whose routes features ETS optimisation of just 7%.

However, Sea-Intelligence notes that the Ocean Alliance has not yet published its network update for 2025, and may change its routes to gain better ETS advantage.

“For maximum ETS savings, a vessel needs to call at a non-EU port closest to the first/last EU port of call,” Mr Murphy explained. “We can calculate the ETS savings, by comparing the ‘modified’ journey against the shortest possible benchmark when going around Africa, which is the sailing distance from Singapore to Algeciras.

“This means that a vessel calling at a non-EU port between Singapore and Algeciras, for example, will only have to pay ETS on 50% of the emissions from that port to Algeciras, as opposed to a vessel that sails directly from Singapore to Algeciras tat would pay ETS on 50% of the emissions of a much longer journey.”

ETS market distortion has been of such concern recently that Turkey recently announced it would implement its own ETS-like carbon-pricing scheme in order to align its own laws with those of the EU, eliminating the possibility of it becoming an ETS tax shelter.