MSC, the world’s largest ocean carrier by operated container vessel capacity, has backed the criticism of the impending carbon intensity indicator (CII) regulation amid fears that the methodology used might result in unintended consequences and penalization.
Under the CII rating scheme, set to enter into force in 2023, ships will be designated with different ratings based on their efficiency ratio, which measures distance traveled, speed as well as the intensity of the use of the vessel.
This will highly depend on how a ship is traded, which is largely dictated by a ship’s charterer. Factors that can also impact these are operational realities, like port congestion or port infrastructure, another issue that is outside of ship owners’ control. Ultimately, ship owners would be ‘stuck’ with a poor rating of the ship.
“ As many across academia and industry have said, the calculation methodology (AER/DWT) should be revised to avoid unintended consequences that would distort the performance of a ship that spends a lot of time in port,” a spokesman for MSC said.
“As things stand, the proposed methodology could lead to situations in which a vessel’s rating would worsen simply because it spends more time in port. We respectfully question whether this unintended consequence could be avoided by amending the methodology.”
BIMCO estimates that the demand for containerships would increase by 10 percent as of 2023 as shipowners move forward with the implementation of the IMO 2023 regulations.