The Port of Long Beach announced Friday that the cleanest container ship to travel to the U.S. stopped at the Port of Long Beach Total Terminals International’s Pier T facility on July 12.
The MSC Jewel is owned by the Mediterranean Shipping Company and is 1,200 feet long with a capacity of 14,436 20-foot equivalent units. The ship was built in 2019 and is powered by Tier III diesel engines, which are 75% cleaner than the International Maritime Organization’s Tier II standard, according to a press release from the Port of Long Beach.
“Tier III ships just started entering the global fleet. The Clean Air Action Plan Update we passed two years ago identified strategies to accelerate the timeline by which we would start to see these cleaner ships calling at our port,” Long Beach Harbor Commission President Tracy Egoscue stated in the press release. “Achieving this milestone is amazing, and we are grateful MSC chose us for this visit.”
All MSC vessels that visit California ports are shore-power equipped, which means they are also able to connect to the land side electrical grid to minimize emissions when berthed. Carriers can also utilize one of the multiple environment-based incentive programs created by the port to encourage greener operations. MSC will receive $6,000 as a result of the MSC Jewel’s visit because of the Port of Long Beach Green Ship Incentive Program. The program rewards vessel operators that deploy environmentally friendly ships and expand the future use of green ships, according to a port press release.
The Port of Long Beach is a pacific seaport that acts as a gateway for trans-Pacific commerce with its 175 shipping lines connecting Long Beach to 217 other ports internationally. The Port also handles $200 billion in trade annually, supporting 575,000 jobs in Southern California, the port stated.
