Samskip COO says sulphur regulations will take traffic from ship to road

The chief operating officer of logistics company Samskip, Diederick Blom, has said that new sulphur regulations will increase its fuel costs by 50%.

He said that certain operators had already closed shortsea services, anticipating a shift to road transport when the regulations come into force in January.

Blom said: “The European white paper on transportation says that one third of road traffic that travels more than 300km will have to be off the road by 2030 and, in total, 50% will need to be off the roads by 2050. So the European Commission will have to make road transport less efficient than it is today in an attempt to support transportation by sea and by rail.”