New Report Finds 31% Emissions-Intensity Gap Between Carriers on the Same Ocean Trade Lane

VesselBot analysis of 86,389 container voyages shows vessel deployment & utilization drive major emissions differences, even across comparable carrier services.

ATHENS, ATTICA, GREECE, August 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Global container shipping emissions intensity rose 1.5% year over year in Q2 2026, but the increase masks efficiency improvements across almost every vessel-size segment, according to Decoding Maritime Emissions Q2 2026: Efficiency Hidden in the Details, VesselBot’s latest quarterly analysis of 86,389 voyages completed by 6,523 container vessels.

The finding points to a broader pattern across the report: fleet-wide and trade-lane averages most shippers and regulators currently rely on can obscure significant differences in the emissions performance of individual voyages and comparable services. On the Northern Europe to North America East Coast trade, for example, three carriers operating comparable services on the same trade lane recorded materially different emissions outcomes despite similar voyage distances and port pairs, highlighting the role of vessel deployment, utilization and voyage execution in determining emissions intensity.

Key findings from the report include:

– The fleet-wide average worsened. Almost every vessel-size segment did not. Overall Well-to-Wake intensity rose 1.5% year-over-year to 231.7 g CO2e per TEU km. But five of the six vessel-size categories tracked in the report improved over the same period, from a 0.9% gain for Panamax vessels up to a 10.6% gain for the largest ships (VLCS). Only Feeders, which carried out 63.9% of all Q2 voyages, got less efficient, and that one segment’s decline was enough to pull the fleet-wide number in the wrong direction.

– A small share of the fleet carries a disproportionate share of the work. NeoPanamax and Very Large Container Ships ran just 7.4% of all voyages in Q2 2026, yet generated 43.5% of total transport work while accounting for only 27.4% of emissions. Feeder and Panamax vessels showed the inverse pattern, running 80% of voyages, generating only 26% of transport work, and producing 45.6% of emissions.

– The busiest trade lanes are also the most efficient, and the least visible in aggregate data. The four major fronthaul trades, China/East Asia to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the North America West Coast, plus Northern Europe to the North America East Coast, accounted for just 1.2% of all Q2 voyages. Those same voyages generated 21.7% of total quarterly transport work while producing only 12.3% of total quarterly emissions.

– Same route, different carriers, materially different outcomes. On the Northern Europe–North America East Coast trade, both Hapag-Lloyd and MSC outperformed the route’s quarterly average of 138 g CO2e per TEU km. Hapag-Lloyd recorded an average Well-to-Wake emissions intensity of 80.7 g CO2e per TEU km, 59% below the trade average, while MSC recorded 117.5 g CO2e per TEU km, 15% below. The comparison also reveals a substantial efficiency gap between carriers. Hapag-Lloyd voyages recorded an average emissions intensity 31.3% lower than MSC voyages, despite similar voyage distances and port pairs, highlighting how operational choices can produce materially different emissions outcomes on comparable trades.

– Utilization emerged as one of the strongest drivers of voyage-level emissions intensity. Voyages in the most efficient emissions-intensity category averaged 80% utilization, compared to 31% for the least efficient. The most efficient voyages also carried close to 9,000 TEU on average.

“A trade lane average tells a shipper what a route looks like on paper. It does not tell them what happened on their shipment. On the Northern Europe to North America East Coast trade lane, we observed a 31.3% efficiency gap between the most and least efficient carrier for the route, despite similar voyage distances and port pairs. Distance alone cannot explain that spread. The difference is in how those voyages were executed.” said Constantine Komodromos, CEO and Founder of VesselBot. “The same pattern appears at fleet level. A fleet-wide number moving 1.5% in the wrong direction suggests the industry lost ground this quarter. But five of the six vessel-size segments actually became more efficient. Feeders moved in the opposite direction and, because they accounted for nearly two-thirds of all voyages, were enough to pull the aggregate number higher. That is the risk of managing to an average: it can point you in the opposite direction of what is actually happening.”

The report is based on AIS-tracked voyage data and VesselBot’s vessel-specific digital twin models, measuring Well-to-Wake emissions intensity at the individual voyage level across vessel size, trade routes, and carrier execution, rather than relying on carrier-reported averages or industry benchmarks.

The full report is available here.

VesselBot invites media inquiries and is available for interviews to discuss the report’s findings.

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