The application of the EU ETS to maritime transport European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which is which took place on January 1st after being decided in the 2022 with the aim of promoting the reduction of gas emissions greenhouse effect also in the shipping industry, seems to have Currently, the effect of economically benefiting companies navigation. This is supported by a study conducted by Transport & Environment (T&E), the organization that aims to support the reduction of the impact of transport on the environment, that ocean carriers are profiting from the inclusion in the EU carbon market.

The study examined a sample of 565 voyages of 20 ships departing from and arriving at the European ports of the first four European container shipping companies - MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd -, from which it would appear that in almost 90% of cases Shipping companies would charge their customers nick-bellies to cover the costs of including their services in the EU ETS that would bring revenue to companies higher than what these companies actually shell out to offset emissions from their ships by returning or purchasing emission unit allowances per tonne of CO2 equivalent issued on the regulated market.

Remembering that in 2024 ships will only have to pay 40% of their emissions, which will rise to 70% in 2025 and 100% in 2026, T&E referred to the "case limit" of the Danish company Maersk, which - explained The organization - may have earned over 325 thousand euros for a single trip from China to Germany. The average value of profits from nicks for the EU ETS are currently - according to Transport & Environment - 60,000 euros for each voyage of a Maersk vessel examined in the study, €25,000 for an MSC ship, €23,000 for a ship of the Hapag-Lloyd is €14,000 for a CMA CGM vessel.

The study shows that, of the 565 trips analyzed, 486 (86%) of the total) would have made windfall profits. The research points out that the higher profits deriving from the the application of surcharges for the EU ETS generated by a single Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM and MSC ships would have amounted to 204,000, 139,000 and 125,000 respectively euro. In an entire year, the study points out, the container ship Maersk's Elly Maersk is believed to record Profits of €1.77 million from the application of surcharges for the ETS, MSC's Benedikt of €1.37 million, Alexis of CMA CGM profits of 818 thousand euros and the Hapag-Lloyd's Al Jameliyah ship at 639 thousand euros.

Not even taking into consideration the hypothesis that the any high ETS surcharge prices currently applied by shipping companies may be the consequence of a initial phase of adaptation, perhaps temporary, to the European system emissions trading and its impact on carriers seafarers, far from easy to predict, Carlos Rico, expert of environmental and transport policies at the Spanish headquarters of T&E, denounced that "shipping giants have used environmental measures as a way to charge more customers. Whether it's the blockade in the Red Sea and a new Cost of carbon - he accused - shipping companies They always win."

Implicitly responding to the fears expressed by the ports in view of the extension of the EU ETS to the shipping about the possibility that shipping companies decide to change the routes of their ships to avoid the ports in the region by making them call at non-European ports, "because "They should never do that," Rico noted, "since from that Are they profitable?"

The study concludes that "the profits from the surcharges for the ETS will exceed the actual costs for the ETS to shipping companies'. "Their customers and end consumers - according to the research - bear not only the emissions costs, while carriers gain new and significant gains Profits. The economies of scale with which maritime transport operates allow for this type of cost transfer. Consumers would pay negligible amounts for the final products, while the shipping companies would increase their margins." "This conclusion," the study states, "is prudential, as it takes into account the presumed cost of issuance of container ships equal to 90€/tCO2, almost double of the current ETS price of €56.75 (as of 03/12/2024). Although the carriers can argue that these costs will be distributed over a wide range of different routes and across the entire fleet, our results show that whereas loss-making ships and routes account for only a small minority of each company's fleet. Therefore, it is that surcharges for the ETS will be an exercise in rather than a transfer of costs'.