ContainersDry CargoGasOperationsTankers

Shipping bids farewell to the gut feel freight market

Nearly two thirds of Splash voters in an ongoing poll believe shipping is at the the end of the ‘gut feel’ freight market and the start of the data-driven one.

With more than 500 votes cast in just 10 days, 64% of readers to date feel shipping is finally casting aside its famed penchant for instinctive market decisions in favour of what computers are telling them to do.

“Classic Greek asset players will still exist and thrive, but the shipping markets will become more digital, closer to stock markets over the next decade,” one reader commented.

The level to which shipowners are harnessing data to make market decisions varies tremendously. Among the leaders in this field hail from Japan where Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), for instance, is developing machine learning systems to read the shipping markets.

Shipping is having to play catch-up in how it reads data to deploy its fleet as many of its clients, the big name shippers, have been ahead of the curve in adopting data to inform market-orientated decisions.

Not everyone is convinced however.

“People unable to produce added value will try to make you believe that data, blockchain and all that stuff is the Holy Grail. It just helps to hide the vacuity of their business,” one Splash reader wrote.

The gut feel question is one of nine posed in our latest quarterly survey, MarPoll. Other topics covered look at which sectors are poised to perform best next year, maritime recruitment, and the potential re-emergence of national shipping lines.

MarPoll results will be released in the next issue of Maritime CEO magazine. To vote takes as little as two minutes and there is no registration. To vote, click here.

Splash

Splash is Asia Shipping Media’s flagship title offering timely, informed and global news from the maritime industry 24/7.
Back to top button