World News
New X-Press Feeders Ships to Bunker in Rotterdam
Shipping firm X-Press Feeders has launched the first scheduled feeder network in Europe powered by green methanol.
The company has held a naming ceremony in RotterdamĀ for its first methanol-fuelled ship, theĀ Eco-Maestro, it said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
The ship is the first in a series of 14, and the company will deploy most of these in Europe. The second is scheduled for deployment in the third quarter of this year.
The ships in Northern Europe will always bunker their methanol at Rotterdam, a company representative told Ship & Bunker. The firm signed a green methanol offtake agreement with OCI Global last year.
The network will cover the following services, according to the statement:
- Green Finland X-PRESS (GFX): Rotterdam > Antwerp Bruges > Helsinki > Tallinn > HaminaKotka > Rotterdam
- Green Baltic X-PRESS (GBX): Rotterdam > Antwerp Bruges > Klaipeda > Riga > Rotterdam
"Today marks a significant milestone in sustainable shipping in Europe because companies here now have a regular scheduled network that can ship goods in a way that has less impact on the environment, helping companies to better achieve their sustainability goals," Francis Goh, chief operating officer of X-Press Feeders, said in the statement.
"X-Press Feeders chose northern Europe for the first routes in the network because we found that customers in this part of Europe were most receptive to our plans for sustainable shipping."