CMA CGM accelerates clean fuel initiatives

Container shipping giant CMA CGM continues to advance its clean fuel initiatives, most recently via a partnership with Shell for marine biofuel.

CMA CGM said Shell will supply "tens of thousands of tons" of second-generation biofuel derived from cooking oil for its fleet—enough to travel nearly 1 million kilometers or the equivalent of 80 round trips between Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and New York. CMA CGM did not specify how many of its container ships will run on the new marine biofuel.

The deal furthers the shipping giant's eco-friendly fuel efforts, advancing a test program it ran this year that used marine biofuel onboard the container ships CMA CGM White Shark and CMA CGM Alexander Von Humboldt, the company also said. The new biofuel is composed of 80% low sulphur fuel oil and 20% biofuel made from used cooking oil; it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80% and virtually eliminates sulphur oxide emissions, according to CMA CGM.

The Shell partnership represents another step in CMA CGM's efforts to implement environmentally friendly energy solutions in the shipping industry. The firm also recently announced a partnership with liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier Total to supply roughly 270,000 metric tons per year of LNG over 10 years to fuel 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containerships based at the Port of Marseille-Fos that will operate between Asia and the Mediterranean. Those ships are scheduled for delivery starting in 2021, the company said. LNG reduces sulphur oxide and fine particle emissions by 99%, nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 85%, and carbon dioxide emissions by about 20%.

The company is also taking a leadership role in developing an international coalition of maritime transport representatives to work on solutions to limit greenhouse gas emissions. CMA CGM President and CEO Rodolphe Saadé announced the initiative earlier this fall with the support of French President Emmanuel Macron, the company said.