MSI: ‘Shipping has rarely faced such a combination of contradictory forces’

Shipping investment decisions are extraordinarily difficult today, according to the head of UK consultants, Maritime Strategies International (MSI).

Unveiling a new digital platform today, MSI’s managing director Adam Kent said: “The shipping markets have rarely faced such a combination of contradictory forces, from trade wars and political risk to regulatory-driven cost impacts and long term sustainability challenges.”

MSI, which has a ship valuation partnership with Splash, has debuted MSI HORIZON, a new digital platform which enables clients to access the consultancy’s proprietary macro and shipping market models and asset valuations data via a single interface.

The creation of an integrated data platform means MSI clients can run market simulations and see the results across multiple shipping sectors.

This includes creating their own forward outlook on valuations and earnings scenarios by adjusting inputs such as GDP growth and vessel supply and demand. This will indicate the impact on newbuilding and secondhand values, as well as on earnings and operating costs, as far forward as 2035.

“The shipping industry is familiar with cycles but increasingly it will have to cope with any number of non-cyclical impacts. These range from short term black swan events like closure of a main chokepoint to longer term impacts on trade from political strategy and environmental policy. This is a market that is used to opacity and where access to information is often determined by market position. MSI HORIZON provides a welcome shot of transparency and empowers the user to model alternative scenarios along with the resulting impact on supply and demand and stress test how changes in the to the base case will affect their fleet’s value,” Kent told Splash.