The Role of Governance in Sustainability of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana: A critical analysis of practical issues
Background Governance plays a direct role in whether a small- or medium scale business survives beyond its founder, uses resources efficiently, attracts finance and responds successfully to changes in the market. In Ghana, this issue is particularly important because the business sector is dominated by small enterprises and a large proportion operate informally. The 2024 […]
A new analysis has revealed a significant emissions gap of 31% between ocean carriers operating on the same trade lanes, despite overall emissions intensity for the container shipping industry increasing by 1.5% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026. VesselBot, an Athens-based research firm, analyzed 86,389 voyages completed by 6,523 container vessels, highlighting that fleet-wide and trade-lane averages can mask substantial efficiency gains and operational differences among carriers.
While five of the six vessel-size categories showed efficiency improvements, feeder vessels experienced a decline, contributing to the overall average increase. The report emphasizes that mega-ships, such as Neo-Panamax and Very Large Container Ships (VLCS), play a disproportionate role in global container trade, operating a small percentage of voyages but generating the majority of transport work and emissions.
However, feeder and Panamax vessels, despite handling the majority of voyages, are responsible for a larger share of emissions. The efficiency gap between carriers operating the same routes is attributed to factors such as vessel deployment, utilization, and voyage execution. For example, Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Co. outperformed the trade average on the Northern Europe-North America East Coast trade, while MSC lagged behind despite similar voyage distances.
The analysis underscores the importance of individual voyage performance over fleet-wide averages in assessing emissions outcomes.
Written by urgent.news from FreightWaves's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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