Long Beach Honors 14 Container Shipping Lines

The Port of Long Beach honored 14 shipping lines that led the industry in reducing their vessel speed within 20 miles of the coast in order to reduce harmful diesel emissions.

Participants in the Green Flag program reduced their vessel speed to 12 knots, helping to prevent the release of more than 650 tons of pollutants into the air during their calls in Long Beach. The participants had a total of 600 vessel calls during 2008.

In order to merit a green flag, individual shipping lines had to make at least 50 vessel calls at the port and their ships had to slow to 12 knots at least 90 percent of the time.

The 14 recipients were: Alaska Tanker, China Shipping Container Line, CMA CGM, China Ocean Shipping Co., Hamburg Sud N.A., Hanjin Shipping, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, Matson Navigation, Mediterranean Shipping Co., NYK Line, OOCL, Zim Line and Toyofuji Shipping. Toyofuji had a perfect compliance rate.

Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bmongelluzzo@joc.com.