Stricter emissions regulations make sea transportation in the North and Baltic Seas more expensive

Impact on shipping companies, ports, freight forwarders and customers

The economic impact of such a development is by no means limited to the shipping companies alone. The Vice President of the German Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association (DSLV) and spokesman for the Committee of German Seaport Forwarders (KDS), Willem van der Schalk, has already pointed out that the consequences would be felt by the ports as well as by the freight forwarders working there and ultimately also by the customers. The Bremen-based Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) estimated that around 600,000 truck trailers and around 800,000 containers could be shifted from ship to road in the Baltic Sea region. This would primarily affect transports to the Baltic region.

DisplayInformation on the various container transportation options can be found at www.containerbasis.de/container-transport, for example.

Controversial positions of industry representatives, environmentalists and the EU

The tightening of emissions regulations and the expected effects are the subject of controversial debate among industry representatives, environmentalists and representatives of the EU. Hanns Heinrich Conzen from TT-Linie in Lübeck, for example, called for a moratorium at an early stage. He based his demand on the fact that suitable exhaust gas purification systems, which would allow shipping companies to continue operating their ships with conventional bunker oil, are not yet sufficiently developed and can hardly be financed. Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that the fact that the new regulations would apply from 2015 was known long enough. Shipowners would therefore have had sufficient time to adapt to the new situation. When it comes to emissions protection, however, it is also clear that different savings targets can lead to conflicts with one another, particularly with regard to short sea shipping.

Less CO2, but sulphur and nitrogen oxides

The EU is actually aiming to increase the role of freight transport by ship. According to its White Paper on a resource-efficient transport system, a third of the freight volume that is currently transported by truck over 300 kilometers should be handled by rail or ship by 2030. This would not only benefit the environment, but also the already hopelessly overloaded road network. However, as the capacities of the railroads are also insufficient, the goal could only be achieved if ships were given a significantly greater role in intra-European freight transport. From an environmental point of view, the main argument in favor of ships is their lower CO2 emissions. Inland and coastal vessels consume considerably less fuel per transport unit than a truck and perform correspondingly well in terms of CO2 emissions. However, this is offset by other emissions, as the fuel used for ship engines is inferior to truck diesel. This is why conventional ship engines emit relatively high quantities of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

100 times higher limit than for diesel trucks

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a London-based sub-organization of the UN, therefore addressed the question of how to reduce the environmental impact of shipping at an early stage. The latest exhaust gas regulations for ships are also based on international agreements initiated by this organization. However, even after the introduction of the 0.1 percent sulphur limit, trucks still have significantly lower emissions than ships. This is because there has also been considerable technical progress in the automotive industry in recent years, and following the introduction of the Euro 6 standard in 2014, environmental pollutants are practically no longer an issue for trucks - even according to environmentalists. Even the upper limit of 0.1 percent for sulphur emissions now introduced for ships in the North and Baltic Seas is still a hundred times higher than the corresponding limit for diesel trucks. From an environmental point of view, the question "ship or truck?" is therefore not as easy to answer as it might seem at first glance. However, greater use of short sea shipping would not only be desirable for reasons of emissions protection. Rather, it would also relieve the pressure on the transport infrastructure on land, which is urgently needed in Europe.