Data, sensors and soft skills

As has regularly been observed in these pages, the next decade will be when data comes into its own as the vital differentiator between efficient, profitable shipping companies and the rest. As consultant Nick Chubb of Thetius told an Inmarsat seminar at Nor-Shipping last week; there are only two motivations in play: stay out of jail by complying with regulation and stay in business by saving money.

However tempting it might be to stop there, Chubb laid out the stark choices facing shipping but matched them with examples of what can be done when companies embrace operational change.

The lesson from history – that it always takes longer and costs more to change – is the bad news for shipping. It’s taken a decade of LNG as fuel to take a 1% share of the global fleet; long term decarbonisation tools could take 10 years to develop and another 10 to implement.

The trouble is that emissions are still rising. Thetius estimates it could cost $1.1-1.9trn to decarbonise maritime, 80-90% of which will be the cost of alternative fuels, the remainder spent on optimisation of existing fleet.

That creates an opportunity Chubb reckons to start gathering real operational data from the fleet, understand the numbers and derive fuel savings and emission reductions. Get the data on the ship and you can drive cultural change there too.

Read the full article here.