The Australian shipping industry is set to benefit from a preliminary agreement signed between China’s COSCO Shipping Corporation and Australia’s Fortescue surrounding a joint venture to build a green fuel supply chain to help reduce pollution from the shipping industry.
The agreement will build on the already strong relationship between Australian mining and Chinese organisations, with Rio Tinto last week announcing it had shipped its four billionth tonne of iron ore to China’s Baowu Steel Group across a 50-year association.
Fortescue recently undertook a world-first trial of utilising ammonia as a fuel in the Port of Singapore, and the memorandum of understanding between the two companies has built on that success.
COSCO and Fortescue will explore transporting minerals on ammonia-fuelled vessels that are either jointly owned or owned by COSCO.
Fortescue CEO Dino Otranto said company executives were in China exploring partnership opportunities as recently as July 25.
“We are committed to increasing cooperation with global partners to actively promote the green and sustainable development in the shipping industry throughout its lifecycle,” COSCO said in a statement.
“The cooperation marks another big step in decarbonising the shipping industry.”
Fortescue was cited in the statement saying, “these solutions will be integral to achieving our net zero Scope 3 emission target by 2040”.
Almost 56 per cent of the world’s iron ore exports came from Australia in 2022, with Fortescue recently being listed as the world’s fourth largest supplier of the mineral.
Brazil stands in second position with 18.4 per cent of the planet’s iron ore exports from 2022.
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