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Ministry of Transport: COSCO green operations 'exemplary'

Ministry of Transport: COSCO green operations 'exemplary'

Shanghai: At a national video meeting for the shipping industry organized by the Ministry of Transport, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co (COSCO) was one of the 20 ports, logistics companies and transport companies called "exemplary" for its environmental efforts in the maritime industry.

This honour comes as COSCO is mulling over a plan to reduce the cruising speed of all of its ships by 10%, in order to lower fuel consumption and reduce emissions following a successful pilot scheme, reports the China daily.

Chen Zhengjie, director of the firm's safety & technology superintendent division, said that the results from the pilot had been impressive. In March, "we saved nearly 30,000 tons of fuel," he said. The group spent millions of dollars equipping its vessels with energy-saving equipment last year, he said. "Fuel consumption is now at its lowest level in the company's history," he said.

Vice-Minister of Transport Gao Hongfeng said the ministry has set goals to cut fuel consumption and emissions. "By 2010, we aim to reduce fuel consumption per unit for trucks and ports by 5%, and for ocean-going ships by 11%, based on 2005 figures," he said.

These efforts will be "significant" to the national campaign to cut energy consumption, as road and water transport accounted for 31.5% of China's total petrol consumption in 2006, he said.

In the near future, an index of emissions and energy consumption will be introduced as part of all transport departments' management systems, Gao said. Chen said fuel consumption per 1,000-ton-mile is one of the indexes already used by the ministry to evaluate the performance of COSCO.  [20/06/08]