Cargo-mix optimization in Liner Shipping

International transportation constitutes one of the biggest challenges in limiting CO2 emission in the world: it is technically hard to find viable alternatives to fossil fuels, and due to the international nature, it is very difficult to regulate CO2 emission of intercontinental trade. Moreover, it is hard to motivate companies to pay for cleaner transport since transportation is not visible to end customers, and therefore cannot justify a higher cost. Hence, optimization may be one of the few options for limiting CO2 emission of international trade. A possible direction is to focus on vessels’ utilization. The more containers a vessel carries the smaller is the resulting CO2 emissions per transported ton of cargo. This is what can be seen as a win-win situation. Better vessel utilization will result both in cleaner transport and in better revenue margins for the shippers.