Tire manufacturer Michelin has agreed to ship some of its tires using two sail-powered cargo ships being developed by French shipping line Neoline, committing to reduce CO2 emissions from its logistics operations.
Accordingly, this partnership marks Michelin’s goals to decarbonization. In addition, Neoline’s decarbonized shipping service relies on clean and renewable wind energy as the main propulsion for its 136m long cargo ships with 4200 m2 of sails. This is an innovative and unique solution, open to all shippers, which will reduce by 90% the CO2 emissions related to transatlantic maritime freight transport.
The partnership concerns the transport by sailing cargo ships of tires loaded in containers from Halifax (Canada) to Saint-Nazaire – Montoir de Bretagne (France) on the pilot line opened by NEOLINE, which will also serve the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as well as Baltimore (USA).
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It is stated that Neoline aims to open its transatlantic line with a first operating vessel in 2023. With the arrival of a second vessel, scheduled a year later, the Michelin group will gradually entrust NEOLINE with at least 50% of the group’s containers transported on this line.
With this collaboration, Neoline places itself as an ambassador for the energy transition of the Supply Chains of major French industry leaders such as Groupe Renault, Groupe Beneteau, Manitou Group, Jas Hennessy & Co and now the Michelin Group.
Pierre-Martin Huet, Michelin Group Supply Chain Director, commented that
This initiative and this new partnership promote innovation in the field of carbon-free transport. This first step in carbon-free shipping is fully in line with the CSR strategy of Michelin’s operations. It will contribute to achieving the objective of reducing CO2 emissions from logistics by 15% in absolute terms between 2018 and 2030.
Neoline’s President, Jean Zanuttini, concluded that the first commitment concerns Eastbound flow (from the Americas to Europe) and comes in addition to an already well-filled order book in Westbound direction (from Europe to the Americas).
With our sailing cargo ships, we are developing a mode of transport that is more environmentally friendly, adapted to the current economic and logistical reality of shippers and not dependent on fossil fuels.
