Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

MSC: CII to soak up 7-10% of container fleet

MSC MSC_containers.jpg
Compliance with the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) will soak up 7-10% of the global container fleet, according to MSC.

The container line said that even with a programme of efficiency improvements through technology and design, speed reductions will be necessary to meet CII goals along with adding extra vessels to its network.

“Just-in-time port call optimisation will also play a role,” said MSC.

The company said it will support and fully comply with the regulation, but levelled a few criticisms to at CII in its current form, particularly the impact of its calculation methods. One of the factors in the CII calculation is distance sailed rather than by cargo work done.

“The calculation methodology (AER/DWT) should be revised to avoid unintended consequences that would distort the performance of a ship that spends a lot of time in port. As things stand, the proposed methodology could lead to situations in which a vessel’s rating would worsen simply because it spends more time in port. We respectfully question whether this unintended consequence could be avoided by amending the methodology,” said MSC.

CII has been criticised from multiple angles over its methodology, which could lead to increased carbon emissions in some situations as less efficient ships are put on longer voyages to attain a better CII rating.

“As others have said, CII should not effectively penalise vessels trading on shorter distances and while waiting alongside,” said MSC.

“It would be far better to have an operational indicator that would reward more productive ships, including based on cargo carried rather than on a theoretical value that may not correlate to transport work performed.”