The President of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO), the Italian Zeno D'Agostino who is president of the Authority of Port System of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, Wednesday warned that the main shipping companies Global containerized companies are planning what they can transfer of calls of its ships moving them from ports European to non-European ports, mainly to transhipment hubs close to EU territory, in order to reduce the economic cost resulting from the entry into force on the first of January of the European directive has included maritime transport in the EU system EU Emissions Trading ETS.

The inclusion of shipping emissions from 2024 in the carbon market will take place gradually and requires companies to surrender an emission allowance for tonne of CO2 equivalent emitted and, in the case of allowances received, are not sufficient to cover the emissions produced by their ships, will have to buy at auction or from other companies shares of European issue whose price will follow the rules of the supply and demand. Graduality consists in payment in 2025 of 40% of emissions produced in 2024, of the payment in 2026 of 70% of emissions released in 2025 and payment from 2027 of 100% of emissions from 2026 in then.

As recalled by the association of European ports chaired by D'Agostino, if "ships call at a port of EU transhipment, the last leg between the port of transhipment and any other EU port is subject to ETS tariffs for 100% of the trip. If, on the other hand, the ships call at a port of transhipment outside the EU, only 50% of the travel", a percentage that however goes back to 100% if it non-EU transhipment airport is less than 300 miles away from an EU port and tranships annually a volume of containers that account for more than 65% of total containerized traffic Bustled by the port.

D'Agostino has raised the alarm for the possible loss of competitiveness of European ports that could be partially excluded from the routes of the ships of the main carriers global seafarers who could thus reduce costs resulting from the introduction of their regular services in the EU ETS. The president of ESPO announced that the association is became aware of "the first initiatives of redirection outside Europe'. It is completely Obviously, the top managers of the leading companies Global containerized companies have long wondered about the impact whereas the inclusion of their services in the EU ETS would have had on the costs of their companies and that they have taken in consideration of the possibilities of reducing at least part of these additional costs by changing the routes of your ships. That they have decided to actually start changing the configuration of own maritime services, as reported by ESPO, is certain alarming for European ports.

As a further cause for concern, D'Agostino Attention drawn to the actual increase in investments in additional capacity in terms of teu in ports and new terminals in neighbouring countries, including investments made in these ports by the main companies navigation'. Substantial investments that in truth They have been in place for many years, even before 2005 when it was the European directive establishing the EU system has been adopted ETS and well before the European Commission's proposal to include shipping within this system and the green light final to this proposal arrived from the EU Parliament last April. However, evidently, ESPO considers that these investments have intensified recently or received Reports of the intention of containerized carriers of invest more in non-European transhipment hubs that can to serve the EU market, a strategy that could certainly be used in the medium or long-term have a significant negative impact on competitiveness of European ports.

In the short term, however, it seems that the main companies of global containerized shipping have decided to react to the new EU rules that increase their costs by introducing specific nicknames able to reduce these burdens by making them pay to the goods. The first was the Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company, market leader in terms of fleet, which already at the end of 2022 informed customers of the foreseeable impact of the inclusion of shipping in the EU ETS on costs of sea shipments and the consequent transfer of costs of adaptation to the new rules as carried out in Priority to cover other costs caused by new rules Environmental. Costs arising from the EU ETS that MSC had specified will update monthly as soon as the new pricing for EU shipping will come into force. A As an example, last November MSC announced that, Based on a European emission allowance price of 90 euro per tonne of CO2, and in the case of the introduction of the system had not happened gradually but the payment of 100% of the emissions produced had been applied immediately, the surcharge for Ship a 20-foot dry cargo container (TEU) from the Far East to the Mediterranean/North West Coast Europe would have been equal to 69 euros, while for the shipment of a Container reefer the surcharge would have risen to 208 euros.

More recently an estimate of the value of nicknames for covering the costs of the EU ETS was formulated by Maersk, the second world company in the shipping market containerized, which last Friday warned that the cost of adjustment will be significant and will continue to increase with the gradual application of the new rules, a cost that will be transferred to the goods for all subject shipments to the EU ETS. Value of the surcharge that Maersk currently believes will update quarterly. The Danish company has also made a forecast on what will be the value of the Soprannolo, taking into account the gradualness, in the meanwhile confirmed, of the application of the standard and therefore the initial obligation to pay 40% of emissions in 2024 and taking into account an allowance price European assumed equal to 90 euros. Maersk announced that the value of the surcharge for shipments from the Far East to the North Europe, however, relative to 40-foot containers (feu), will be EUR 70 for containers for dry loads and EUR 105 for refrigerated containers.

The latest in order of time to communicate the introduction of specific surcharge is the German Hapag-Lloyd, which today has Communicate to customers the potential impact on their shipments of the new costs determined by the EU ETS, specifying that the Nickname will be recalculated quarterly. The vector Germanicus, by way of example, specified that the surcharge on 20-foot container shipments from the Extreme East to Northern Europe will be 12 euros for dry container and 31 euros for reefers, while that for teu shipments from the Far East to the South Europe will be respectively equal at 7 and 16 euros.

The considerable difference between the assumed surcharge values from the three companies can derive both from the different moment where these figures have been defined, both from being to knowledge or not of the gradual introduction of the system that from the diversity of the type of loads to which are reported, but also by many other factors, not least the uncertainty about what the impact of the new EU environmental rules for shipping on shipping costs shipping companies, also in consideration of the unknown of the Price for which these carriers may purchase European issuance on the market.