In its latest Sunday Spotlight (issue 754), Sea-Intelligence has analyzed the 2026 Asia-Europe shipping networks in the context of the fully implemented EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The ETS mandates that shipping lines surrender carbon allowances for all emissions on voyages between two EU ports, and for 50% of emissions on voyages between an EU port and a non-EU port. To prevent circumvention, key regional transshipment hubs such as Tangiers (Morocco) and Port Said (Egypt) are classified as non-qualifying "last ports of call." This means a vessel traveling from Singapore to Tangiers and then to Rotterdam, for instance, will still be subject to taxation on 50% of the entire journey's emissions.

However, data indicates that carriers are effectively minimizing their tax liabilities. They are achieving this by utilizing alternative non-EU ports located geographically near the EU. This strategy effectively resets the ETS distance calculation, allowing them to report shorter sailing distances. By mapping the port rotations of all Asia-Europe container services, Sea-Intelligence has observed that the recently announced networks will reduce the aggregate ETS-chargeable sailing distance by an additional 11% when compared to the 2025 networks.

Figure 1 illustrates these additional savings resulting from network redesigns, categorized by shipping alliance. While MSC demonstrates the largest total absolute reduction in ETS-chargeable distance against a Singapore-Algeciras baseline, neither MSC nor Premier Alliance have made significant changes to their ETS sailing distances over the past year. Instead, the new...