Spotlight

Sergio Amiti / Getty Images

ing for shipping’ s decarbonization journey.“ The fund mechanism is, in our assessment, dead in the water,” Eirik Nyhus, DNV’ s vice president and director of environment, told a webcast organized by the group.“ We see it as exceedingly unlikely that the US will accept the economic aspects of [ the ] net-zero framework in any form.” Achieving the IMO target of full decarbonization by or around 2050 with benchmark targets set along the way will require narrowing the wide price gap that exists between fossil fuels and the low- or zero-emission alternatives, which, by its very nature, will require making fossil fuels more expensive. But without the funding element,

shipping groups and environmental campaigners argue that the NZF will become irrelevant. A report from the Global Maritime Forum earlier this year warned that any removal of the economic element— designed to make green technologies cheaper than high-emission alternatives— would also remove the likelihood of effective enforcement.

US ports facing $ 6.7 billion equipment bill: NAWE

US ports will accumulate almost $ 7 billion in costs for ship-to-shore cranes and other container-handling equipment over the next five years, according to the National Association of Waterfront Employers( NAWE). But the spending is hamstrung amid an unclear tariff on

Hal Bergman / Getty Images

Chinese cranes and halting efforts to reshore crane manufacturing to the US. In a survey of 25 port and terminal executives published in May, NAWE said US ports and marine terminals will need more than 100 ship-to-shore( STS) cranes through 2031 to replace aging assets or provide new crane capacity at a total cost of $ 6.7 billion over the next five years.“ These findings underscore the scale and urgency of the investment challenge facing US ports,” NAWE President Carl Bentzel said in a statement accompanying the survey.“ Modern cargo-handling equipment is essential to ensuring terminal productivity, supply chain resilience, and the ability of US ports to compete with international gateways.” New and replacement cranes, along with other cargo-handling equipment, account for $ 5.1 billion of NAWE’ s estimate. In addition, US ports are looking to spend $ 917 million on railmounted stacking cranes and another $ 790 million for repairing existing STS cranes and equipment. Along with the equipment bill, Bentzel told the Journal of Commerce that equipment is just the“ tip of the iceberg” as US ports need to spend many billions more to improve underlying infrastructure including road, rail and maritime access.

A quarterly research report analyzing domestic intermodal pricing and services.

Exclusively available to Gold Subscribers.

79455 www. joc. com June 1, 2026 | Journal of Commerce 7