X-Press Feeders signs green shipping deal with six European ports

Singapore-based container shipper X-Press Feeders signed a memorandum of understanding with six European ports to refuel its ships with green methanol, the company said on Friday.

The ports include Belgium’s Antwerp Bruges, Estonia’s Tallinn, Finland’s Helsinki and HaminaKotka, Latvia’s Freeport of Riga and Lithuania’s Klaipeda, X-Press Feeders said in a statement.

Under the agreement, the ports and the company will collaborate to develop infrastructure for the supply and bunkering of alternative fuels including green methanol to cut emissions.

Two shipping routes will be established to and from Rotterdam port, including a Baltic route and a Finland route.

The services are scheduled to commence in the third quarter and will be the first feeder routes in Europe to be powered by green methanol.

“We chose the Nordic and Baltic states as the first markets to deploy our green methanol-powered vessels because we found the ports and our customers in these markets to be very receptive,” said Francis Goh, chief operating officer at X-Press Feeders.

The company had told Reuters in an interview previously that it planned to use green methanol bunker to fuel part of its fleet in Europe from the second quarter of 2024.

X-Press Feeders, which operates more than 100 vessels globally, has ordered 14 dual-fuel ships that can burn methanol and conventional bunker fuel.

Using green methanol, which is produced from biomass or captured carbon and hydrogen from renewable power, can reduce carbon dioxide emissions for its ships by at least 60% compared with conventional fuels.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; editing by Jason Neely)