The Michelin Group has signed a transport commitment with a French start-up offering carbon-free shipping to reduce its environmental footprint.
This transport commitment signed by France-headquartered Michelin concerns the containerised transport of tyres on Neoline sailing cargo ships travelling from Halifax, Canada to Saint-Nazaire - Montoir de Bretagne, France. The pilot line opened by Neoline will also serve the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as well as Baltimore, US.
"This initiative and this new partnership promote innovation in the field of carbon-free transport,” said Pierre-Martin Huet, Michelin Group supply chain director. “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.”
First vessel in 2023
Neoline plans 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. Like the Group's sites, which are committed to the ambitious goal of zero CO2 emissions by 2050, Michelin intends to test new solutions to decarbonise its logistics operations.
The Neoline decarbonised shipping service relies on clean and renewable wind energy as the main propulsion for its 136m long cargo ships with 4200m2 of sails. This solution is expected to reduce CO2 emissions related to transatlantic maritime freight transport by 90%.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
