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Shipping firm slows its vessels to save on fuel

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-19 10:32

China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co (COSCO), one of the country's largest shipping firms, is mulling over a plan to reduce the cruising speed of all of its ships by 10 percent, in order to lower fuel consumption and reduce emissions.

At the start of the year, the state-owned company launched a pilot scheme cutting the speed of its container ships, which account for 65 percent of total energy consumption, by 10 percent.

Chen Zhengjie, director of the firm's safety & technology superintendent division, said yesterday the results have been impressive.

In March, "we saved nearly 30,000 tons of fuel," he said.

Also, last year, the group spent millions of dollars equipping its vessels with energy-saving equipment, he said.

"Fuel consumption is now at its lowest level in the company's history," he said.

Chen was talking of COSCO's success at a national video meeting for the shipping industry organized by the Ministry of Transport.

At the meeting, the firm was named as "exemplary" for the industry, along with 19 ports, logistics companies and transport administrations.

Chen said the ministry is pushing the whole transport industry to cut fuel consumption and emissions.

Vice-Minister of Transport Gao Hongfeng said the ministry has set goals for both.

"By 2010, we aim to reduce fuel consumption per unit for trucks and ports by 5 percent, and for ocean-going ships by 11 percent, based on 2005 figures," he said.

These efforts will be "significant" to the national campaign to cut energy consumption, as road and water transport accounted for 31.5 percent of China's total petrol consumption in 2006, he said.

Since 2000, the two industries' fuel consumption has been growing at an annual rate of 12 percent, he said.

In comparison, China has set targets to reduce its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by 2010, and to raise its renewable energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020.

Therefore, the reduction of energy consumption and emissions is "a long-term task for the whole transport industry", Gao said.

"And it can be achieved through better management and planning," he said.

In the near future, an index of emissions and energy consumption will be introduced as part of all transport departments' management systems, Gao said.

Chen said fuel consumption per 1,000-ton-mile is one of the indexes already used by the ministry to evaluate the performance of COSCO.

Over the next three years, the transport ministry will try to optimize the road and navigation infrastructure, and build a seamless connection between railways and airports to reduce oil consumption, Gao said.

It will also encourage more people to use public transport, and restrict capacity increases on routes that average less than 70 percent passenger loads, he said.

As for cargo transport by road, the ministry plans to set up a system to completely eradicate high-emission vehicles, Gao said.