| Summary: | In the last 10 years, concerns about air pollutant emissions from shipping activities have grown in international policy debate. Thanks to the enactment of MARPOL Annex VI, the IMO saw reductions in the content of sulfur in marine fuels. To mitigate the air pollution from sea shipping, Emission Control Areas (ECAs) was established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Shipping lines operating within these regions have expressed their cost concerns as tighter regulations will lead to them switching to cleaner and costly marine fuels. Ship operators hence had to resort to costly low sulfur fuel so as to adhere to the regulations. To adhere to these stringent regulations, one alternative for shipping lines is to 1) switch to costlier MGO during their voyage within these regions and 2) deliberate travel at reduced speeds inside and greater speeds outside the ECAs so as to to consume lesser costlier fuel. Shipping lines are wary of their operating costs during each sailing leg and with ECA, their routing and fleet deployment decisions are likely to be impacted.In this report, I come about an mathematical model that can be utilized by shipping lines to determine optimal routing and fleet deployment such that their bunker costs can be minimized along a given route. Moreover, I will examine a realistic examination on 1 real-life shipping liner service to examine possible impacts on fleet deployment and routing and therefore total weekly costs.
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