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ZIM — container fleet

The ZIM container fleet counts 8 ships reporting under the EU MRV regulation — the 45th largest reporting fleet — with a combined 0.18 Mt of verified CO₂ emissions in 2025. Every figure on this page comes from the yearly verified reports each ship files with EMSA.

Its total emissions went from 0.05 Mt of CO₂ in 2018 to 0.18 Mt in 2025, a trajectory that reflects both fleet size and operational efficiency choices such as slow steaming and vessel upgrades.

ZIM, Israel's global carrier and a New York-listed company since 2021, runs the industry's most deliberately asset-light model: the overwhelming majority of its fleet is chartered rather than owned, letting it flex capacity with the market. Its signature move was chartering a series of LNG dual-fuel newbuildings — including 15,000 TEU class ships from Seaspan — which transformed the carbon profile of its core Asia–US and Asia–Mediterranean loops.

In the verified MRV data, ZIM's reporting fleet is smaller than the megacarriers' but unusually modern on the lanes that matter to it. The LNG charters place its newest units among the lower CO₂ intensities in the dataset, a striking turnaround for a fleet that a decade ago skewed old — and a live case study of decarbonising through chartering rather than owning.

Verified data reported under the EU MRV regulation (source: EMSA / THETIS-MRV).

Fleet CO₂ trend