Charterers Take Lead in Contracting Most Fuel-efficient Vessels

Cargill, Huntsman Corp. & UNIPEC UK who combined charter over 350 million tonnes of commodities annually decide to charter only eco-friendly ships.

Cargill, one of the world's leading international transporters, producers and marketers of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products, Huntsman Corporation, the global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals and UNIPEC UK Company Ltd, trader of crude oil and oil products, announce that they will only charter the more efficient vessels operating in the shipping market.  This commitment is the first of its kind in the industry to reduce the existing fleet carbon emissions.

The Existing Vessel Design Index (EVDI), created by ship vetting specialist RightShip and published on ShippingEfficiency.org - an initiative launched by the Carbon War Room and RightShip to increase information flows around international shipping's energy efficiency, as an GHG Emissions Rating (A-G rating) benchmarking system.

The efficiency ratings system - containing efficiency information on over 60,000 vessels including container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, cargo ships - enables charterers to instantly see a ship’s theoretical greenhouse gas emissions and relative energy efficiency as determined by RightShip’s EVDI rated from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient), compared to ships of similar size and type.

“Cargill has introduced a senior management override on the use of the least energy efficiency vessels.  By choosing the more efficient vessel available to us, we are making a strong statement to the market,” commented Jonathan Stoneley, Environment and Compliance Manager, Cargill Ocean Transportation. “We hope this action will demonstrate to ship owners that they can and should do more in terms of efficiency, and that the market will reward them and will also show other charterers the decision support tools available if they want to operate more efficiently. We will work together with customers, as best appropriate, to help them meet their environmental objectives linked to transportation and this rating system.”

Stoneley continued: “Cargill is committed to minimizing our environmental impact throughout our global operations. We do this by developing management systems and policies to ensure best practice environmental compliance and continually improving performance on criteria relevant to our business and operations. We partner with governments, non-governmental organisations, communities, employees and customers to leverage market-based solutions to reduce the environmental footprints of the supply chains in which we participate.”