Increased voyage efficiency can’t arrive soon enough

Congestion has been a fact of life in the shipping industry for years. Neither has it always been a dirty word. For spot trading ships, a strong market encourages charterers to take tonnage where and when they can, to the benefit of owners who sometimes get paid to wait.

For operators of more sophisticated supply chains, congestion is a killer, since it disrupts schedules constructed in large part to serve the needs of their customers whose merchandise they carry.

Now congestion is becoming endemic, whether as a result of fresh COVID lockdowns, low water levels on inland arteries or the structural inefficiencies at some ports. The invasion of Ukraine and its knock-on impact to coal, grain, fertilizer, LNG, crude and oil products trades has created almost unbearable pressure on even robust economies.

The disruption has also brought into sharper focus a bigger problem. Inefficient supply chains mean more carbon emitted; just at the point when the industry is under pressure to make reductions.

So serious is the need to reduce delays, improve efficiency and cut carbon emissions caused by congestion, that various public and private initiatives have been founded to bring together stakeholders to develop standards and work on new technology and contractual terms to encourage its wider adoption.

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