UECC forges green towage tie-up with Svitzer

European shortsea RoRo shipper UECC is expanding the use of carbon-neutral biofuels in its logistics chain through a new partnership with towage provider Svitzer, a wholly owned subsidiary of AP Moller-Maersk.

The two companies have signed a three-year contract for Svitzer’s EcoTow product that will see biofuels introduced on Svitzer tugboats performing towage operations for UECC’s pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) calling at Scandinavian ports.

This is expected to bring about a reduction of almost 25% in UECC’s seaborne Scope 3 emissions – covering indirect emissions associated with business operations across the value chain.

It is estimated that CO2 emissions from UECC’s towage operations at the ports of Esbjerg, Gothenburg and Malmo will be cut by more than 300,000 kilograms over the term of the agreement.

UECC has been using biofuels on its PCTC Autosky over the past two years to cut annual carbon intensity by around 60%.

“With this agreement, UECC once again positions itself in front of the market, demonstrating that decarbonisation projects are scalable and available,” says UECC’s energy & sustainability manager Daniel Gent.

“This project aligns with our own supplier policy, which looks to holistically reduce the environmental impact of our business operation, far beyond regulatory requirements.”

“With this agreement they join other global Svitzer customers who partner with us around decarbonisation, gaining the ability to include externally audited CO2 emission savings in their reporting. This shows a strong desire on the part of UECC to demonstrate environmental responsibility,” Sven Lumber, head of EcoTow at Svitzer, commented.

Svitzer recently announced its ambitions to reduce CO2 emissions from its fleet by 50% within 2030 and achieve fully carbon-neutral towage operations in 2040, initially through conversion to biofuels.

UECC said it would be among the first shipping companies to exceed the IMO’s 40% carbon intensity reduction target by 2030 through investments in a trio of newbuild multi-fuel LNG battery hybrid PCTCs, as well as the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and biogas on existing vessels.

The second of these newbuilds, Auto Achieve, was recently delivered from China’s Jiangnan Shipyard and will start trading this month, with the third vessel due for delivery in autumn this year.

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