Digital technology adoption in shipping has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic
The global maritime digital products and services market in 2021 is valued at US$159Bn, 18% more than pre-pandemic forecasts.
Covid-19 has been a “universal disruptor and catalyst for digital transformation” in maritime industries, said a report sponsored by Inmarsat’s research programme.
When Covid emerged and crossed the world, it resulted in global travel restrictions, seafarers stuck on ships and rising demand for remote services and digitalisation.
It also drove surging demand for crew connectivity, digitalisation of ships, cloud-based services and internet of things (IoT).
These were key conclusions from A Changed World: The state of digital transformation in a post-COVID-19 maritime industry report, written by maritime innovation consultancy Thetius.
“The impact of Covid-19 on ship operations is evidenced by a massive increase in the use of remote services such as pilotage and surveying,” the report says.
“Similarly, crew training and officer examinations went fully online for the first time ever in some jurisdictions.”
There was rising demand for cloud-based solutions and the applications they host, especially IoT and fleet management within maritime.
“More broadly, global trade facilitation saw an explosion in the use of digital tools, including massive growth in consumer demand for e-commerce and the use of online booking platforms for shipping freight,” the report says.
This led to an increase in data transferred through communications systems, especially satellites, between ships and shore.
The average daily data consumption per vessel nearly tripled, from 3.4 to 9.8 GB between January 2020 and March 2021, according to Inmarsat’s own data covering commercial shipping during the pandemic period.
“Digital solutions are now pervasive in maritime, and one consequence of Covid-19 has been that our customers – and their customers – increasingly think digital first,” said Inmarsat Maritime vice president for business development Stefano Poli.
“The last 18 months have been challenging, but they have also brought a seismic shift in attitudes in favour of IoT-based solutions for crew connectivity, safety, sustainability and ship efficiency,” he said.
An example is greater acceptance of remote ship surveys and collaboration, such as Inmarsat’s work with Lloyd’s Register on the first dedicated connectivity agreement to livestream surveys while vessels are at sea.
“This is just one example of the vast scope of previously promising digital opportunities whose maritime moment has come,” said Mr Poli.
These global trends in maritime connectivity led Inmarsat to unveil plans for its Orchestra communications network of the future. This brings “together Inmarsat’s comprehensive geosynchronous satellite network with low earth orbit satellites and terrestrial 5G into a single high-performance network of networks” said Mr Poli.
“Orchestra anticipates digital needs. It will future-proof connectivity everywhere, including to hot spots in busy ports, passenger ships and autonomous vessels.”
The US is the top nation, followed by the UK, for abundant sources of cloud computing, data and analytics, and artificial intelligence technologies for the maritime sector.
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