Singapore, Rotterdam advance 'green' shipping corridor

The Singapore-Rotterdam Green and Digital Shipping Corridor (GDSC) is accelerating its decarbonisation efforts with new partners, and is advancing initiatives to encourage the uptake of sustainable marine fuels.

The world's two largest marine fuel hubs established the Singapore-Rotterdam GDSC in August 2022, in a push for maritime decarbonisation and digitalisation between the ports.

There are 26 global value-chain partners in the GDSC initiative including fuel suppliers, shipping lines, knowledge partners and financial entities. German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd is the latest partner in the Singapore-Rotterdam trade lane, committing to operate large container vessels on zero and near-zero carbon emission fuels. Hapag-Lloyd is the world's fifth-largest liner shipping firmwith at least 260 ocean-going vessels, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

GDSC working groups will also pilot the uptake of sustainable marine fuels — like bio-methane, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen — and test out commercial structures to reduce cost barriers in switching to alternative fuels.

This includes a bio-methane working group that is studying regulations and standards to support adopting the fuel for marine bunkering on a commercial scale. GDSC partners also plan to carry out bio-LNG bunkering pilots over 2024-25, based on a mass balancing chain of custody principle. A methanol working group is working on fuel standards and knowledge exchange, in addition to addressing common challenges to carry out commercial methanol bunkering at Singapore and Rotterdam. And an ammonia working group is developing a framework to assess the lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity of green ammonia for bunkering, to be completed by 2025.

Improvements to digitalisation have also been made as part of the GDSC initiative, with Singapore and Rotterdam successfully piloting an exchange of port-to-port data. Both ports will be able to exchange vessel arrival and departure times for port planning, and ships travelling between Singapore and Rotterdam can also optimise their port call voyage.

The maritime sector is pushing towards a more resilient and efficient energy transition, and participants have pointed out that collaboration between countries and stakeholders would be key to green shipping corridors.

The GDSC is a "very valuable collaboration in accelerating the twin transition: the integration of digital innovation in energy transition efforts," said chief executive officer of Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR), Boudewijn Siemons. "Not only are we seeing the first results in standardization and data sharing for Port Call Optimization but also the first steps in moving towards operationalization of zero and low carbon fuels on this trade lane."

Progress on the GDSC development also reflects that "public-private collaboration across global value chains can be achieved," said MPA chief executive Teo Eng Dih.

By Cassia Teo