Bulk conference maps safety, decarbonisation and data

Decarbonisation choices, carbon pricing and legal gaps

The decarbonisation debate exposed a widening gap between high-profile pilot projects and day-to-day tramp operations.

Intercargo described members’ investments in ammonia, ethanol and methanol-fuelled tonnage, backed by long-term charter support, but stressed that most bulk carriers still relied on conventional fuel and short fixtures, with little visibility on future fuel prices, availability or infrastructure.

Class data showed around 20% of the bulk carrier orderbook as alternative-fuel-ready or dual fuel, compared with about 2% of the existing fleet, with LNG dominating current uptake and methanol and ammonia following.

Fuel suppliers argued that LNG would remain a central part of the mix, while legal experts warned that existing liability conventions did not yet fully address alternative fuels as bunkers.

Wind assistance and data: tools for competitive advantage

Wind-assisted propulsion providers demonstrated fuel savings ranging from about 5% on less favourable routes to more than 20–30% on longhaul east–west trades, with case studies on very large bulk carriers and an installed base of 25 rotors and growing.

Delegates heard how retrofittable ’lift-and-shift’ rotor installations could be completed in around two weeks, extending the period before vessels slipped into poorer CII bands, while alternative e-sail concepts showed similar potential.

Digitalisation was presented as the second major lever with owners and managers describing how poor or inconsistent data still undermined time-charter equivalent calculations and performance assessment, with many decisions still based on charter-party descriptions rather than measured behaviour.

Standardised, digital documentation workflows and APIs to class societies were shown to save tens of hours per month across modest fleets, while providing a single source of truth for inspections, vetting and commercial decisions.

Sign up for Riviera’s series of technical and operational webinars and conferences:

• Register to attend by visiting our events page.
• Watch recordings from all of our webinars in the webinar library.