Editor’s selection: Lenders off track from green goals, Maersk’s Skou to step down, and the Saverys turn the screw

Just one in four of the financial institutions that pledged to benchmark their portfolios against global carbon emission targets from shipping are on track, it has emerged. Only seven of the 28 banks and lenders that reported data to the Poseidon Principles in 2021 were aligned with the International Maritime Organization’s ambition of reducing international shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050. The number is lower than a year earlier when 11 banks were aligned with the target.

Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk will have a new leader next year after chief executive Soren Skou said he will retire at the end of the year after a 40-year career with the liner giant. The group’s chief executive of ocean and logistics, Vincent Clerc, will replace the outgoing boss.

Euronav’s biggest shareholder is ready for talks to avoid what he sees as a disastrous fleet combination with John Fredriksen’s Frontline. The Savery family has made sure this week that a full legal merger is now impossible through its blocking stake of 25% in the Belgian tanker owner.

Japanese shipowners and operators K Line and NYK Line remain the only two shipping groups to achieve an ‘A’ rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project. It is the third year in a row that both firms have been the sole representatives getting the top score from the global non-profit investors’ organisation for their climate-change activities.

Meanwhile, something is changing within freight derivatives markets and Danish owner-operator Norden wants to get ahead of the curve. The Copenhagen-headquartered firm has revealed its plans to expand its forward freight agreement desk and roll out algorithmic trading of the derivatives which it expects to be a “substantial” stream of revenue in the future.

Stolt Tankers is calling for improvements to what it says are unfair carbon efficiency measures affecting its chemical tankers. The Norwegian-owned company is the latest to add its voice to the chorus of criticism of the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator.

In this week’s Green Seas newsletter, scrubbers were in the spotlight. Questions have been raised about regulations for exhaust gas cleaning systems, known as EGCSs or scrubbers. Nearly three years after the IMO imposed the global cap on sulphur content in shipping fuels, Dutch officials are probing whether crew are properly trained in the systems.