Towards fossil CO₂-free sea transport – UPM switches three vessels to bio-LNG

Saara Töyssy

Editor, Tulus

UPM and its shipping partner Bore Ltd. have joined FuelEU Maritime compliance pooling service Ahti Climate with three modern dual-fuel vessels in May 2025. As of May the three vessels have used bio-LNG, forming fossil CO₂-free sea corridors to products by UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Plywood and UPM Communication Papers from Finland to Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. The development is another step towards UPM’s target to reduce fossil CO₂ emissions from its supply chain by 30% by 2030 (from 2018 levels).

Ahti Climate

Although maritime transport is more energy-efficient per ton-kilometre than road or air transport, it remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels. This is due to the long lifecycles of vessels and the difficulty of anticipating and adopting new, capital-intensive fuel technologies. To accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels, the EU has introduced FuelEU Maritime. It requires the gradual decrease of greenhouse gas intensity of maritime fuels, starting with 2% by 2025 and reaching 80% by 2050. It applies to ships with a gross tonnage above 5000.

To comply, shipping companies need to blend bio-components to fossil fuels, switch to them completely – or face penalties. The situation is challenging for many as the availability of biofuels is limited and the cost high.

Services such as Ahti Climate, help companies adapt. Those who have invested into advanced technology and have access to biofuels, like UPM, can provide compliance to other members of the pool and benefit from their investments. Others are able to meet the regulation while using conventional fuels. The pooling services, regulated by the EU, encourage investment into new technology while offering the opportunity to buy compliance where investments are yet not feasible.

EU-regulated pooling services encourage investments in new technologies while also offering the possibility to purchase compliance when investments are not feasible.

A modern fleet makes fossil CO₂-free sea transport possible for UPM

For UPM producing in-house maritime transport services is a strategic choice that ensures mobility, availability and independence. UPM’s fleet has seven modern dual-fuel vessels in total, all able to run either on natural gas (LNG) or conventional marine gas oil. Until May 2025 the ships have all relied on fossil LNG.

“Joining Ahti Climate and introducing bio-LNG in three vessels covered by the regulation efficiently supports our strategic sustainability goals. The shift from marine gas oil to fossil LNG in 2022 already reduced our emissions by 25 percent. With the use of biogas, these specific sea corridors will be fossil CO₂-free from June 2025 until the end of the year,” says Jukka Hölsä, Vice President, Logistics at UPM.

UPM is looking to continue with the partnership and use of bio-LNG after the initial contract period of 2025.

A close strategic partnership enables future-proof development

UPM’s dual-fuel ships have been designed and built in close collaboration with shipping partners Bore Ltd. and Wijnne Barends, both part of the Spliethoff Group. Spliethoff and UPM work in close collaboration in both strategic planning and day-to-day matters.

“We function almost as a part of UPM and strive to be ahead of not only daily matters but special situations such as strikes, tariffs and the changing environmental regulation”, describes Michael van den Heuvel, CCO of Spliethoff Group.

Spliethoff works hard on their part in meeting UPM’s 30 by 30 goal.

“With each innovation the industry is becoming one step more sustainable: A special paint on the hull of the ship can bring emissions down around 3% and a route optimizing system that guides ships to sail in optimal weather also brings considerable savings. The vessels we now design are expected to produce around 40 to 50 percent less emissions per transport-tonne than the average ship today”, emphasizes van den Heuvel.

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