In the first of a two-part survey looking at maritime tech in 2023, today Splash identifies the potential big breakthroughs this year. Tomorrow’s extended instalment will identify the likely tech disappointments in 2023.
Setting the scene, Osher Perry, CEO and co-founder of artificial intelligence (AI) firm ShipIn Systems, tells Splash: “Technology trends transforming the maritime industry come in various forms on the back of increased regulation and stakeholder pressure.”
To this end, it is not surprising that many respondents chose to focus on shipping’s pressing carbon footprint issue as the most important tech topic in the coming 12 months.
Green ships
Carl Schou , president of Wilhelmsen Ship Managment, thinks 2023 will be the year where the demand and supply equation will solve shipping’s greatest riddle – the choice of fuel for the next generation of ships.
“We are seeing an increase in traction for methanol and in my opinion this will be the year that methanol is embraced by the wider industry which includes shipowners, suppliers like engine-makers and tank and infrastructure in the main bunkering ports,” Schou says.
Analysis from class society DNV shows methanol was the second most popular alternative fuel choice for newbuild orders last year after LNG, with 35 ships ordered, bringing the total count to 82 ships.
In addition to a growing clamour for methanol-fuelled ships, Esa Jokioinen, director of sales and marketing at ship designer Deltamarin, expects that wind-assisted propulsion will gain more traction in 2023 both for retrofits and newbuilds.
Maritime has become a hot area for both entrepreneurs and investors
“With increasing fuel prices and carbon taxation, the payback times are expected to keep declining,” he says.
Aleksander Askeland, chief sales officer at Yara Marine Technologies, also believes 2023 will herald market recognition of the importance of wind-assisted propulsion technology’s flexibility and versatility for shipping’s future.
He has a few reasons for this. Shipping’s initial hesitation to incorporate wind propulsion technology has waned in the last few years, he says, as fuel availability and prices pose a growing challenge. At the same time, discussions of future fuels indicate that while progress is being made, mainstream uptake is unlikely to occur before the incoming 2030 deadline for emissions targets. Additionally, Askeland says shipping needs to consider the potential costs associated with future fuels when it comes to infrastructure and retrofitting.
“These factors,” Askeland says, “together with a growing need to consistently reduce emissions wherever possible, suggest that wind-assisted propulsion technologies can and should take centre stage this year.”
Ulrik Dan Frørup , chief commercial director at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, believes shipping already has a great deal of technology available to address the principal challenges it faces of decarbonisation and the need for less carbon intensive ships.
“What we need right now,” he says, “is not only a greater adoption of existing digital technology and energy efficiency devices and systems in ship design, in retrofitting and in onboard operations – but also a radical change in how we work together as an industry to share and make sense of data.”
We need a radical change in how we work together as an industry to share and make sense of data
Like many other respondents Frørup reckons 2023 is shaping up to be big for wind propulsion systems and a year when projects such as green corridors will show how technology and collaboration can play their part in decarbonising specific routes and bringing together industry pioneers in new multiparty contractual relationships for mutual benefit.
“Where we need breakthroughs is in incentives, in industrial scale projects and in capturing and using data while knitting together the interests of designers, owners, banks and insurers to drive technology adoption. If we can drive that system change, then new technologies will, naturally, and more easily, emerge in a virtuous circle,” says the class society executive.
The CII effect
Al Tama, vice president at Orbcomm, an American communications company, tells Splash: “This is the year that maritime will really embrace the power of data, given the entry into force of the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and the Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index ((EEXI), operators will be gathering data about their fuel consumption and emissions to optimise vessel operations.”
Taylor March, director of sales at New York-based AI specialist Nautilus Labs, says that from a commercial perspective it will be inevitable to forge stronger collaboration between owners and charterers especially with CII now being in effect.
“Owners and charterers will have to rewrite their thinking of efficiency, and only independent, unbiased technology will enable them to generate a win-win situation, rather than a zero-sum game,” he says.
Cheaper comms
Green shipping was only fractionally ahead of the envisaged communications revolution in this year’s Splash’s maritime tech survey.
Tore Morten Olsen, president, maritime for Marlink, is by no means alone in reckoning the biggest change to hit shipping this year tech-wise will come from the integration of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services and their first applications for maritime users.
“We are currently testing both Starlink and OneWeb so full commercial availability will not happen immediately, but the levels of interest we are fielding from customers suggest it can’t come fast enough,” Olsen reveals.
Frank Coles, a Florida-based shipping consultant, and former head of brands such as Wallem and Inmarsat Maritime, is someone who regularly bemoans the industry’s lack of innovative spirit.
Nevertheless, the one area where he thinks shipping might see some change this year is the disruption of satellite technology services.
“Starlink threatens to bring some change, but it is not yet mature enough and their marketing is a mess. They lack coverage, bandwidth and provide a confusing story at the current time,” Coles says.
Incremental improvements by being integrated
“Looking into the horizon, I think there will be no such thing as a single technical breakthrough in 2023, but a combined effect of many incremental improvements,” predicts Tor Svanes, the CEO of NAVTOR, a Norwegian vessel performance software firm. “Well-integrated and optimised solutions will continue leading the maritime technology industry developments this year. Those integrated solutions will increasingly gain terrain against standalone products,” he predicts, arguing that maintaining several standalone systems is too demanding in operations and service compared to quickly evolving integrated systems.
Thomas Zanzinger, CEO of Ocean Technologies Group, reckons 2023 might be the year where maritime’s siloed nature finally gets solved.
“The big breakthroughs I see coming through this year are in bringing a hitherto disparate technology landscape together. By integrating applications and overlaying multiple data sets we will start to identify opportunities for incremental gains across operations,” Zanzinger says.
Owners and charterers will have to rewrite their thinking of efficiency
Linked to this, Olga Kadeshnikova, customer success leader at data provider Spire Maritime, is one of many people polled by Splash who argues that consolidation in the maritime tech industry in the form of more acquisitions will be a very important trend to keep an eye on in 2023.
Michael O’Brien, vice president at StormGeo, a Norwegian weather forecaster, believes the technology surrounding AI will begin to truly shape the direction of the industry this year, helping shipping to understand trends, data, and utilisation in a way never seen before.
Emma Mark, chief operating officer at CargoMate, a digital tool for crews, suggests there is a huge opportunity for the industry to refocus its digital journey by employing the knowledge and valuable viewpoints of those that are at the very heart of it: the seafarers.
“Seafarer-reported data could potentially be the key that unlocks the efficiencies the industry is so desperately seeking,” Mark argues. “Vessels and their shore-based teams are at the mercy of ports and terminals whilst undertaking cargo operations, with little to no data flowing to enable a fully optimised port call.”
Supply chain resilience
“In 2023 the phrase of the year will be supply chain resilience,” predicts David Levy from New York-based OrbitMI, a vessel performance software company.
“Maritime has become a hot area for both entrepreneurs and investors, not to mention increasing its profile in the public’s mind. As such, we’ll continue to see significant activity in the maritime tech space in terms of M&A, consolidation and new entries and you can expect at least one non-traditional player to make a major investment in maritime as a strategy to shore up supply chain resilience,” Levy predicts, suggesting this could be a global retailer, logistics player or transportation giant.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s 2023 maritime tech disappointments instalment. For all the latest shipping tech news, check out our dedicated coverage here.
It might be useful to capture all of the above and review the key items in a year’s time to validate (or not) them.
This is a good summary of many green & tech related items. I’m very skeptical about AI’s disruption as AI does not provide foolproof, solid predictions & recommendations that an industry like shipping would expect. But, let’s see.
Other techs like wind-propelled, satellite, and emission measurement will gain traction, I think. The software associated with these will need validation & verification as to whether they are doing the right thing and doing things right.
Last but not the least, every player in the industry should come together to make things happen even if means a bit of loss of their profit, for the sake of our planet Earth.
For consultations on Software Testing & Quality, feel free to contact me. The co-ordinates are in my website.