Industry still moving slowly on digitalisation

Singapore

A SIGNIFICANT percentage of senior maritime executives responding to a poll on Monday harboured doubts about a digital future for the sector, an indication of the industry at large taking small, incremental steps in going digital.

Some 125 senior maritime executives responded to a poll at the inaugural conference "Global Perspectives: The Future of Shipping" held in conjunction with Singapore Maritime Week 2018 on Monday.

All in, 101 participating executives or 80.8 per cent of respondents held the view that "digitalisation is for real", while 24 others, or 19.2 per cent of respondents, either saw digitalisation as just hype or declined comment.

The poll result could surprise many who are not active in the maritime industry given digitalisation has already disrupted the related logistics and transport sectors.

Digitalisation also demands not just investments in software and hardware, but also training and redeployment of staff and updates to work processes.

This raises a relevant consideration when pondering any digitalisation initiative - would the efforts invested be compensated with good enough returns.

In this respect, one panelist suggested that the economic driver for going autonomous, which feeds digitalisation, may not be so compelling in the maritime sector.

Clarkson Research president Martin Stopford said research conducted by leading marine equipment supplier, Rolls-Royce, showed that going autonomous delivers just 10 per cent cost savings from "investments in a new ship plus its operating costs".

That said, some of the largest international shipping players including Norway-headquartered Wilhelmsen Group have embarked on autonomous shipping initiatives.

Wilhemsen Ship Management president Carl Schou who also appeared at Monday's panel discussion said the group's joint venture with Kongsberg, unveiled in early April, will focus initially on developing autonomous vessels for coastal trade.

Mr Schou said deep-sea shipping is more likely to go "semi-autonomous" in the foreseeable future. "You would need someone on board if you have a 2 million barrel oil tanker headed for California."