fleet2_Layout 1 07/04/2014 11:48 Page 36 FLEET MANAGEMENT What is really driving ship eﬃciency? Owners and managers taking part in the discussion acknowledged that high-speed broadband services were necessary for efficient shipping operations, but expressed concern that the industry was being slow to adopt new technologies compared to other industries and faced challenges in its ability to define broader technology objectives and opportunities. According to Tey Yoh Huat, Technical Head at Altus Shipping: “We are not utilising modern technology. The kind of changes we’ve experienced, for example the introduction of FleetBroadband, are not even half of what other industries have seen.” Although fellow roundtable member Ajay Tripathi, General Manager at MMS, agreed that ship operators were not focusing on future technologies to support the changing requirements of businesses and crews, he believed there was a repressed desire in the industry to leverage technology better. Now in its fifth year the SingTel Maritime ICT Roundtable has developed a reputation as a forum for the frank exchange of views. The prolonged downturn in the shipping industry has led to an increased focus on cost efficiencies and particularly those made possible by the intelligent deployment of ICT solutions. However, it seems clear that ICT and broadband in particular offers wider and more significant advantages than merely cost efficiencies. 36 MITE April/May 2014 Shipping ʻis not even leveraging current technology adequatelyʼ was the consensus reached by a roundtable hosted by SingTel on the intersect between ICT and efficiency Market situation One key area on the exploitation of new technology is clearly expense, at a time when the shipping industry has been undergoing extremely challenging market conditions. Vibhas Garg, Vice President Fleets at BW Fleet Management, suggested: “The market is not going to allow any new technology because new technology is going to be more expensive in the beginning. We are going to continue living with the old technology as long as we can sustain this market.” Captain Garg believed that the investment in broadband will help ships “phenomenally” and says that linking up diagnostics systems on LNG carriers has reduced the need for service engineer. “If I could reduce the service engineers on the entire BW fleet – 90 ships – we are talking about millions here. That alone is going to pay back the cost of this investment,” he said. Participants agreed that adoption of new technology was not being driven purely by compliance needs but by a need to drive efficiency or increase the competitive edge. “If you look at GMDSS is ... a mandatory requirement but nobody ever uses the thing Alasdair Smith, SeaTeam Management your GMDSS equipment, you’ve got things like narrowband direct printing telexes. That’s a mandatory requirement but nobody ever uses the thing. And then you’ve got a VSAT which handles 90% of your communication and there’s no requirement to have it,” said Alasdair Smith, Managing Director of SeaTeam Management. Forward-thinking ship managers still have to persuade owners of the benefits of new technology like broadband – a process that can prove difficult – and it was “up to ship managers to advise owners of these benefits and the savings that come along with it,” said Victor Wee, Head of Shipping at Global Energy International. Mandatory matters Ship operators’ compliance with new regulations could also be a question of timing it right. According to Vijay Rangroo, Managing Director of MTM Ship Management, some regulation was seen as benefiting the seafarer, like the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) while the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) and Ballast Water Management were considered to add administration and costs. Arun Ahluwalia, Fleet Director at MSI Ship Management Singapore, believed that with more technology like ECDIS coming onstream, “second mates are very happy if it is implemented on board. They don’t have to do any chart correction.” Tim Wilkins, Regional Manager for Asia/Pacific at the independent tanker owners fleet2_Layout 1 07/04/2014 11:48 Page 37 FLEET MANAGEMENT association Intertanko, believes that while SEEMP is mandated, tanker owners were already looking at efficiency and commercial viability issues because of the hike in bunker fuel costs. SEEPM, he said, just happened to have come along at the same time. Compliance is not the driver for efficiency, but the profit from the voyage is, added Tey You Huat. Since implementing broadband “we have been doing two downloads per day on route optimisation and I can tell you we actually saved over $500m last year on fuel efficiency,” said Neptune ShipManagement Services Managing Director Lee Chee Seong. “If you can get a system that will help you save money on fuel in the last couple of years, people are interested and are willing to invest in it.” Security alert The use of broadband and advanced IT systems has also raised the spectre of the threat to shipowners posed by ‘cyber-attacks’, or possible tracking by terrorists or pirates. Although the amount of information moving from ship to shore is a source of concern, connectivity could also improve the chances of locating a missing ship. On the reverse side of the coin many panel members believed security was more likely to be threatened by disgruntled employees. In the event of a crew sabotaging the network, day-to-day functions that depend on downloading data could be gone and could take some time to restore. While using broadband for CCTV surveillance on ships could provide benefits, the practice is still regarded as controversial and could result in a change of work patterns if crew members knew they were under surveillance. Surveillance on all ships would change the whole maritime situation awareness picture, security and how we respond to it. Welfare whinge Satellite technology obviously has a role to place in crew welfare and training at sea, as improved communications with their families would obviously be of benefit. The question of whether crew retention was bet- GMDSS is mandatory but not very useful for routine communications ter as a result of improved communications was one issue. According to Christopher Kirton, Managing Director of Norstar Ship Management, crews joining ships without broadband “may whinge for a while but that won’t stop them from staying on board the ship”. Others suggested that lack of broadband might prove a barrier to recruitment. Broadband access could present problems, however, crews could be less interested in working overtime when they could watch films in their cabins during rest periods and might not be resting as required under the new Maritime Labour Convention. Different owners operate different systems as far as access to broadband is concerned with some selling prepaid cards to try to recover part of the cost, according to Lim Kian Soon, head of satellite at SingTel. Tim Wilkins believes seafarers are not choosing which employer to work for based on connectively issues but on whether the employer was a good one overall. Broadband can also be used for distance learning purposes although Captain Garg mentioned that current technology was still not capable of delivering face-to-face coaching and mentoring. Systems that reduce the amount of paperwork will obviously benefit overworked crews. MITE April/May 2014 37