Sweden may no longer build deepsea tankers, but the shipping community supports a healthy maritime technology community
Sweden may no longer build deepsea tankers, but the shipping community supports a healthy maritime technology community
It has been over 40 years since the last Swedish-built VLCC left the Eriksberg shipyard, but Sweden continues to be a force in tanker shipping and more recently in marine technology start-ups.
Looking at the VesselsValue infographic on page 24 it becomes clear that in terms of number of tankers and value, the Stena organisation dominates through its subsidiary companies Stena Bulk, Concordia, and the joint venture Golden Stena Bulk. These account for around one third of the total value of the Swedish tanker fleet.
The Swedish tanker fleet is relatively young with nearly US$700M worth of new to four-year-old vessels, and vessels priced at US$300M on order. One of the companies at the forefront of newbuildings of an innovative nature is Erik Thun AB, whose new series of chemical tankers is led by Ferus Smit-built Thun Eos, a 7,999 dwt chemical tanker equipped with a 2,999 kW Wärtsilä 6L34DF dual-fuel main engine using natural gas (LNG), biogas (LBG) or gasoil as fuel. Natural gas and biogas can be mixed and used as a combined fuel. The switch between fuels can be made seamlessly without loss of power or speed.
Erik Thun chief executive officer Joakim Lund told Tanker Shipping & Trade: “We are in a big expansion phase with the largest orderbook in the history of this company.
An orderbook that matches supply with demand, an orderbook where we build climate-smart, high-quality ships that meet and exceed forthcoming environmental legislation.”
"Together with our partners in the Gothia Tanker Alliance we are operating Europe’s most modern small and intermediate sized tankers"
The company is part of the Gothia Tanker Alliance, which also includes Furetank, Uni-Tankers, Wisby Tankers, Rederi AB Älvtank, OHM, and DSD Shipping. This group is committed to and preparing for decarbonisation:
“Together with our partners in the Gothia Tanker Alliance we are operating Europe’s most modern small and intermediate-sized tankers with, for example, 11 newbuildings that use natural gas or biogas as a fuel,” said Mr Lund. “With our vast investment in fuel-efficient and climate-smart vessels, our fleet will meet the IMO 2050 emissions goal by 2022.”
Innovation is a core theme in the Swedish maritime sector. Indeed, what many outsiders regard as innovation is to the Swedish maritime community simply getting on with everyday business.
A case in point is Lean Marine, which offers two innovative marine technology products, FuelOpt and Fleet Analytics. FuelOpt acts to automatically control the engine and propulsion as an addition to the existing onboard system. The technology optimises a vessel’s performance in real time. Whenever a vessel is in transit (and using most of its power for propulsion) FuelOpt will step in and minimise costly variations in speed and power due to human operational factors, while optimising pitch and rpm for maximum efficiency.
Fleet Analytics collects, analyses and presents the data gathered by FuelOpt. It also combines this automatically logged data with input from the crew. This creates a single environment in which reports (such as MRV) and analyses can be created with unprecedented simplicity and ease.
Lean Marine’s chief executive Mikael Laurin explains why Sweden’s maritime sector is so suitable for developing such technology.
“Even though the Swedish maritime industry and shipbuilding activity has shrunk compared to 50 years ago, there is still a vibrant Swedish shipping community. Sweden is a small country but has a relatively large technology industry, and that combination has led to many technology start-ups in the marine tech area,” he said.
The shipping community is concentrated on the west coast around Gothenburg. Mr Laurin pointed out that one small island off the coast of Gothenburg, Donsö, has only 1400 inhabitants but is the home to 11 shipping companies. “Donsö is one of the success stories of when you have the ‘can-do’ attitude in a community. There is a very entrepreneurial mindset in that community, and generally they have been very successful,” said Mr Laurin.
Donsö is also the location of the Donsö Shipping Meet, which takes place this year in early September. It is a chance for all the current generations of shipping folk to meet. Mr Laurin noted that the shipping market cycles affect families, and the current weak cycle has seen the younger generation look to new technology as a career, which in a way benefits shipping, too.
“Lean Marine has a relatively young staff, with what is now an established product, but we are still seen as a start-up company” said Mr Laurin, who is still in his forties.
“Today we have 131 ships with our product installed, a wide customer base and cover most sectors. We started in the tanker sector, but today we are experiencing growth in the ropax sector, the container sector and ferries. We are seeing fuel savings on all the installations, with the highest savings on vessels with controllable pitch propellers, which is where we [Lean Marine] can optimise the pitch and the engine power.”
Start-ups like Lean Marine have to respond to customer demands, and they are now looking farther afield: “We are selling a lot more into Europe and into Asia, where we are seeing the product installed as a retrofit, and on some newbuildings. We expect that to be the growth market in the coming years.”
Responsiveness to customer demand is echoed by a somewhat more established Swedish company, Kockumation. It sees marine technology and connectivity as growth areas, as Kockumation head of sales Johan Ljungbeck explains.
“We see the market trend is toward connectivity, between the ship and shore, but also within the ship, where in the past systems have worked in isolation. We see this with one of our products, the loading computer (Loadmaster X5), which contains a lot of data about the ship and is a starting point for smarter thinking and smarter shipping. We can provide analytics and optimisation,” he said.
Kockumation brought these elements together in a module called Graphical Simulation. This is an addition to the Loadmaster range of cargo-loading computers specifically aimed at the tanker market. It simulates the entire loading and unloading operation, and in doing so checks that hull, tank and cargo handling are within the strength and safety parameters.
The next phase of development is a fine example of the Swedish marine technology sector’s flexibility. A client’s representative had sailed on tankers and had used Loadmaster and the Graphical Simulation package. The client had tanker newbuildings under construction and requested that Kockumation develop a “real-time” package for the newbuildings, which would allow the pre-discharge and loading simulation also to run in real time. The aim is to provide a comparison between the simulated cargo flow and valve operations and the real-time operation.
“The benefits are that the tanker undertakes safer discharge and loading, and assures that the cargo operation is within the boundaries already tested by simulation and recorded in real time. In the past, there may have been doubt if cargo operations were within the safety limits. Now there is data before and during the operation. It speeds up the cargo-operation process as there is less requirement to have extensive safety margins. The simulation and real-time data comparison provide a degree of optimisation of tolerances,” said Kockumation head of sales Johan Ljungbeck.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.