A new report commissioned by Bureau Veritas (BV), outlines the benefits of an approach to digital collaboration that will support shipping’s energy transition.
In particular, written by Thetius, the report, titled Common Interest, benchmarks shipping’s progress on using digital solutions to collaborate on decarbonisation goals and shows how industry frontrunners are breaking down the technical, legal, financial and cultural barriers.
Key areas
- Collaboration between different software providers and ship operators can provide more detailed ship performance analytics for fleet owners and managers.
- Digital synchronisation of the shipping ecosystem can help address “sail fast then wait” practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from voyages.
- Data sharing is critical to ensure seamless port visits and help deliver “just in time” arrivals, supporting decarbonisation and voyage efficiency.
- Large-scale data sharing can improve modelling of ship performance, with data pooled from multiple ships dramatically increasing the accuracy of modelling algorithms and digital twins.
The latest figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that the transport sector is responsible for about 22% of global CO2 emissions from anthropogenic origins, with shipping responsible for 8-9% of the transport contribution.1 2 In the context of the fight against global warming, shipping is a significant emitter and pressure from the market and wider society is mounting.
Digital technology and developments in data handling and exchange offer compelling opportunities to achieve these aims. But to succeed at scale, these solutions call for competing parties to recognise new common interests and shift industry mindsets to accept more data sharing and collaboration.
Why data sharing and collaboration matters
As explained, the purpose for gathering data is to analyse it and learn something which could be used to make decisions. There are different types of data, multiple ways of analysing it and countless use cases for data insight.
Thetius asked Benne Englen, CIO at Anthony Veder, about the current state of optimisation in the ocean supply chain and why shipping seems to suffer greater
operational inefficiencies than other transport modes. He said, “Over the last 30 years, asset owners have placed a lot of attention on optimising individual assets in a supply chain. But that is not the same as having an optimised supply chain. What tends to happen is that inefficiencies get pushed towards the cheapest ton-mile assets in the chain, because that’s where, at least from an economic perspective, they hurt the least. In our case, our vessels are the cheapest assets in the chain, so the inefficiency gets pushed to us, usually in the form of long waiting times at anchor before entering port.”
The report also identifies four main categories of challenge as the primary obstacles that hinder more effective data sharing in the maritime sector:
- Competition laws; The notion of openly sharing data with competitors is naturally unthinkable for many maritime businesses. But sharing data with
trade partners and the wider supply chain on platforms which are also used by competitors is an increasing reality. In 2022, Houlder Navigator
published a whitepaper containing the results of a survey of large and small shipping company executives across the container, tanker, bulk,
cruise, and ferry sectors. The survey gathered opinions on the challenges and opportunities for digitalisation and the energy transition. - Data siloes; “Siloed data” is an increasingly familiar term in shipping. It refers to data which is stored and controlled by one company, department, or business unit in such a way that makes it inaccessible to other nodes in a system. As such, silos can be internal, where data might be available to a finance department but not to a commercial department, for example. Or external, where, for instance, berth productivity data might be available to the terminal operator, but not a ship operator.
- Costs; The cost of gathering, storing, parsing, analysing, and sharing data can be considerably reduced if suitable market ready solutions are selected. However, cost is still considered by many to be a significant barrier to data-driven transformation in the maritime industry.
- Cultural and behavioural resistance: The culture which exists at individual, board, and industry-wide levels can have a significant impact on the speed and direction of change. This report has already examined some of the legacies which exist in maritime and with them comes forces which favour a business as usual approach. A system of learning from mistakes and passing down traditional best practice from generation to generation builds
wisdom, but may also limit innovation.
