Price increase in container ships: CO2 certificates strike!

Price increase in container ships: CO2 certificates strike!

From January 2025, drastic price increases in the shipping of containers! The reason is the planned changes in the CO2 certificate trade. The shipping companies then have to purchase significantly more certificates to compensate for their climate emissions. This has an impact on the freight rates: In the future, 70 percent of fuel consumption will be used to calculate, instead of 40 percent as before. Hapag-Lloyd, the fifth largest container shipping company in the world, announced that the increasing costs will be flipped to customers, which can cost between 15 and 100 euros per 20-foot container (TEU) depending on the journey area, Kunststoffweb .

increasing CO2 certificate prices

But that's not all! The prices for CO2 certificates themselves are also continuously increasing. The current data show an increase in prices in European emissions trading (EU ETS) from 2022 to 2024. The price per tonne CO2 now achieves record heights and has a significant impact on the cost structure of different industries. As Statista , the price developments for emission certificate are not new, but the upcoming increase in certificate prices could be the entire logistics and transport industry put under pressure.

The combination of increased certificate costs and the associated changes in the freight price design will provide a lot of conversation in the business circles in the coming months. One thing is certain: the times of the cheap container transport are coming to an end, and consumers have to prepare for rising prices.