Industry spending on digital services from SMEs and innovators will jump from current levels of US$4.2Bn in 2018 to US$111Bn in 2030
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hold the key to developing a new generation of solutions for vessel tracking and monitoring, fuel consumption reductions, preventing ship collisions and improving crew time management.
Innovators will also influence the maritime trade by modernising freight forward processes and cargo monitoring, enabling smarter surveying, optimised dispatch processes, environment impact assessment and improved maintenance.
These were some of the examples provided in a new study launched during London International Shipping Week. Trade 2.0: How Startups Are Driving The Next Generation of Maritime Trade report was written by Nick Chubb and Leonardo Zangrando for Inmarsat.
UK maritime minister Nusrat Ghani called on the maritime industry to assist startups to develop innovations and technologies. “We are not doing enough for startups, promoting global leadership and creating jobs,” she said.
“We need to promote smarter technology and support start-up innovators to use smart and autonomous technology.” She added that the UK industry should develop green financing offerings for clean and sustainable growth.
“This should be industry-led, with a joint facility to advise startups for promoting autonomous and smart shipping,” said Ms Ghani, who added the UK Government was committed to supporting startups in the maritime industry.
Mr Chubb said these innovators will change the face of maritime procurement with more services purchased from SMEs and less from larger corporations in the future.
He predicted that spending in digital services from SMEs and innovators will jump from current levels of US$4.2Bn in 2018 to US$111Bn in 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 120%.
“Startups are driving the next generation of maritime trade,” he said. “The opportunity for digital platforms is huge.”
Mr Chubb acknowledged that satellite connectivity was at the heart of future innovations. “We are now at the beginning of an industry transformation enabled by satellite broadband,” he said.
This is helping to develop internet-of-things (IoT) technology-based solutions for optimising ship operations and cargo monitoring, Mr Chubb said.
In the future, “we are going to see more decision support systems for crew, autonomous vessel technology, blockchain and cloud platforms to help financing and reduce administration”.
There could be collaborative decision support tools for port operations and cloud-based administration systems to reduce the burden on seafarers and improve shipmanagement.
Inmarsat senior director of digital applications Marco Camporeale said shipowners were spending US$2.5M on average on IoT and that all owners worldwide will use IoT for fuel consumption monitoring by 2023.
He expects startups to benefit from and help drive this digitalisation trend to provide solutions for smarter shipmanagement, navigation and a more sustainable industry.
They will provide solutions for optimising port operations, for example, to reduce the time containers remain in ports.
Digitalisation will also “facilitate trade through digital contracts and accelerate cargo movements, digital links to brokering and insurance and blockchain electronic contracts” said Mr Camporeale.
Inmarsat facilitates some of these innovations through its Fleet Data ship IoT service that uses its Ka-band Global Xpress connectivity and L-band back-up. It also works with startup incubators and is developing the certified application provider programme.
“Our exciting new collaborations with startups will bring game-changing digital products to the maritime industry,” said Inmarsat Maritime president Ronald Spithout. “This is why we are championing open innovation, collaboration and partnership. We are reaching out to, identifying, co-researching and co-creating new digital products with innovators.”
Inmarsat vice president for offshore Eric Griffin will be opening Riviera’s Asian Offshore Support Journal Conference - (on 17-18 September in Singapore) where Inmarsat is the platinum sponsor and is hosting an invitation-only roundtable discussion
Innovations that enable owners to optimise ship operations will be discussed at Riviera’s Optimised Ship Forum in Hamburg, Germany, on 1 October 2019
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