Carrier choice drives shipping emissions

Choosing a shipping carrier can reduce a voyage’s emissions intensity by up to 35%, highlighting the growing importance of operational efficiency in maritime decarbonisation.

The findings come from VesselBot’s latest report, ‘Decoding Maritime Emissions, Q3 2026: Stable Intensity, Diverging Voyage Performance’, which analysed 83,817 voyages involving 6,730 container vessels.

Across four major fronthaul trades, the difference between the most and least efficient carriers ranged from 20% to 35%. Meanwhile, average well-to-wake (WtW) emissions intensity remained broadly stable at 235.1g CO₂e per teu-km, increasing 0.5% year on year.

The report highlights why absolute emissions alone can provide a misleading picture of environmental performance. On the China/East Asia–Northern Europe route, Evergreen recorded the highest average emissions per voyage, at 14,273 tonnes CO₂e, but achieved the lowest intensity among three carriers examined, at 47.4g CO₂e per teu-km.

Its vessels carried an average 20,400 teu at 96% utilisation, demonstrating the influence of cargo volumes and vessel loading on efficiency.

Constantine Komodromos, founder and chief executive of VesselBot, said: “An average emissions figure may tell us whether the overall market is improving or deteriorating, but it cannot explain what is happening on individual voyages.”

Total maritime emissions fell 1.9% to 55.5 million tonnes CO₂e, while transport work increased 1.2% to 712 billion teu-km. However, average voyage duration reached 5.3 days, its highest level across the first three quarters of 2026.

Port time also increased 6.2% year on year, averaging 27.3 days per voyage across the reporting analysis.

The report concludes that vessel deployment, sailing patterns, port stays and cargo utilisation must all be considered when evaluating shipping performance.

Komodromos added that emissions data should provide evidence to help shippers ‘evaluate carriers, understand operational inefficiencies and make better transportation decisions’.