More research needs to be carried out into the processes the shipping industry will need to go through to meet the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap, says CargoMate’s CEO and co-founder, Chris Jones.
According to Mr Jones, the most immediate and short-term challenges the shipping industry faces are those associated with reducing emissions and creating environmental responsibility. There are a lot of options for shipping companies to choose from, such as marine scrubbers, low-sulphur fuel, or alternative fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG), and while these are all likely to be very costly and have a big effect on shipping companies, Mr Jones says no one is really looking at the processes behind this at the moment.
Dennis Sandmark, CTO and co-founder, CargoMate, says for start-ups, the immediate challenge is keeping up to speed with everything that is going on. As shipping becomes digital, it opens up to smaller actors. Mr Sandmark believes that companies that are brave enough to collaborate with new companies are going to be the ones that reap the benefits of the digital age.
Turning quite a physical, relatively old-fashioned industry into something that can compete with the likes of Amazon is the focus CargoMate believes the shipping industry should take. Mr Jones says that Flexport’s announcement of chartering its own 747 to start carrying freight for its own customers is an example of what could easily happen on the shipping side too. The shipping industry needs to move with the times, experiment a little, and see what processes work, while removing some of the waste in operating fleets, confirms Mr Jones.
Read more from CargoMate here.
