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Major technological trends in shipping industry and plans to save communications costs

CyberLogitec participated in Maritime CIO Forum, which was held in Rotterdam in November. The forum is designed to share issues and trends in shipping IT and communications and forecast the future of IT. Hosted by Digital Ship, an international news provider that specializes in the field, the event came after Nor-Shipping of 2013. The forum has a new venue for each year.
This year’s forum has some 100 people from European shipping industry, which included IT workers in various positions ranging from CIO to IT manager of a shipping company. For the purpose of performing promotion in Europe and figuring out market issues, CyberLogitec participated in this forum, where the company presented operating systems for shipping companies such as OPUS Bulk and OPUS Vessel.
Interesting topics and details from the forum are as follows.

1) How far can remote monitoring & control be applied in shipping industry?
– Engine monitoring for ships has been under way for last 6 or 7 years.
– Since other industries have gone beyond monitoring to control, shipping has to tackle remote monitoring as its urgent task.
(Exemplary targets of monitoring: engine condition, fuel condition, and cargo condition)

2) A plan to save costs for vessel-land communications and related issues.
– The choice is clear: either shouldering the increasing burden of communications costs due to increasing data on objects of management, or value-added information management through efficient use of data.

3) Is transport by unmanned vessels possible?
– DNV GL is developing “Revolt”, a newly conceived vessel for innovation in offshore transport and logistics.
– The new ship model is expected to serve as a solution to accidents, the industry’s major problem, and increase cargo carrying capacity.
While no clear conclusion was reached on the topic, diverse views were presented. And participants shared part of the information on certain projects in progress. While it wasn’t likely to bring changes to shipping industry in a short period of time, the topic deserved attention in the medium and long terms. Interestingly, participants were able to actively participate in the forum, as the mobile page provided real-time Q&A and survey.

The forum looked differentiated from other exhibitions in that it was a specialized forum as the title ‘Maritime CIO Forum’ suggested. Moreover, the networking session allowed us to figure out the trends and interests for European shipping companies.