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Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Japan’s Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line), one of the world’s largest shipping groups, have reached an agreement to cooperate on research and pilot projects to decarbonise bulk cargo shipping.
The cooperation is expected to focus on the development and implementation of new marine decarbonisation technologies suitable for EGA’s bulk cargo shipping routes in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.
Solutions are likely to include kite systems, alternative fuels and CO2 capture technologies. All of these technologies today have technical and practical challenges to widespread adoption that remain to be overcome, ranging from technology immaturity to lack of support infrastructure.
K Line will lead research into decarbonisation opportunities, and EGA will target pilot projects on its K Line shipping routes. K Line transports around five million tonnes of EGA’s bauxite a year from the Republic of Guinea to the UAE and some 1.5 million tonnes of alumina each year from Australia to the UAE, under long-term Contracts of Affreightment.
Abdulnasser bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said, “Our long-term relationship with K Line provides an ideal platform to develop and test ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. For EGA, our goal is to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions not just from our own operations but also from activities in our supply chain. Improving the fuel efficiency of shipping could also reduce our shipping costs.”
K Line has been engaging in the seaborne transportation of the raw materials for EGA since 1979, when the predecessor company of EGA, Dubai Aluminium, was founded. The Japanese firm has welcomed the opportunity to collaborate through the sharing of research and ideas and utilising and leveraging each party’s knowledge about new marine technology, alternative fuels and other fields to achieve the common target of net zero by 2050.
