IMO's EEXI and CII efficiency rules become hard constraints on the existing fleet from 2027. Ships that miss the carbon-intensity bar must either cut power or cut speed — and both routes land on the same outcome: moving one ton of cargo burns more sea days, eating into effective capacity.

For SNSUC's seven-variety transshipment book, the first-order effect shows up in VLCC and MR freight. Slow-steaming stretches a typical Middle East–Far East or West Africa–Far East voyage by 3–5 days, trimming effective supply by roughly 4–6%; freight indices have to move up to cover owners' compliance cost. STS transshipment at Fujairah or Sohar already saves a leg of the voyage, and that saving is now worth more — one fewer day at sea is one fewer day of CII penalty.

On the policy side, pilots for green methanol and LNG marine bunker fuel are being expanded. Zhoushan and Shenzhen have raced to build bunkering capacity, not for single-fuel substitution but to give owners a compliance option: vessels trading the Asian loop bunker locally and square their CII account. For an offshore supplier like SNSUC, that fuel-mix switch lands directly in the freight line of arrival cost.