The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the legal governing body for International Shipping and subsidiary of the United Nations (UN), sets the global sulphur emissions limits for marine fuels as per international convention MARPOL Annex VI Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from ships.Within Europe it is covered by regional agreement under European Directive 2012/33/EU. IMO also sets the areas, within which the regulation applies these are called Emission Control Areas (ECA’s).

Geest Line have successfully managed to refrain from introducing any LSS to its clients and borne the higher operating costs during the phased introduction by the IMO. However, this is not sustainable going forward given the requirement to reduce emissions from 1.0% to 0.1% effective 2015.  For more information on Geest Line Low Sulphur Surcharge (LSS), please click here.