The TradeWinds ShipTech newsletter
Hello ShipTechies
Welcome to the first ShipTech newsletter of 2025. This is the newsletter sent out last week to subscribers via email. It's a selection of recent news articles and insights into the way the mechanisms of shipping work from our editorial team.
We kick off with a deep dive into a retrofit project which grabbed my attention for various reasons. I will mention two here.??
Firstly the Atal/BAM retrofit project has taken four vessels and 10 technologies which each vessel will have installed during a docking this year.? They range from the expected to the unusual and new. Some may say even risky.
Then there is the way the financing of the project has been approached. This is unique. I have heard of companies trying to promote a contractual agreement approach between owner and charterer to share the costs of the retrofit work and then the rewards of fuel savings, but this use of export credit guarantees is a first as far as I know.
The full story is in this newsletter.?
Then we have the data from Clarkson's on fuel and technology uptake during 2024. There is good and bad news there.
Unseen Labs is a company I have been aware of for a while. This satellite startup can track vessels on the high seas without using normal tracking signals (AIS).?
And then the story about insurers needing to reward tech-savvy shipowners. It has long been a thorny discussion, but will insurers reward owners taking tech-based measures to make ships and cargo safer??
And finally... last month I got wind of K-GTB. It is a test bed vessel that has just been built in South Korea. It has been built to allow Korea's Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering test new fuels, digital technologies, automation and other technologies at sea.
Craig Eason, technology editor
How to use export finance to fund a retrofit project
Edwin Sieswerda from Atal Solutions plans to retrofit four handymax bulkers with 10 energy-saving solutions on each in the first half of 2025 and has banked export finance to support the full project.
Export finance is a tool shipowners should be using more frequently for retrofit projects, Sieswerda told TradeWinds.
The shipowner is Blue Astra Maritime, a new company owned by Greek and Saudi investors active in the shipping industry, he said.
The company is Netherlands-based Atal’s project partner and client.
The task is to reduce fuel consumption by 20% and CO2 emissions by 80% across the four vessels, which are between 12 and 17 years old.
The owner aims for the vessels to be as green as possible, without investing in a fuel switch.
It then intends to secure favourable charters on North Atlantic routes.
With the export guarantees in place, Sieswerda was able to secure $111m to buy the four vessels, establishing special-purpose vehicles to own them.
It was also able to haul in the technology firms for the retrofits.
Corporate financing covers 85% of the project finance, while 15% comes through the equity of Blue Astra Maritime’s owners.
Export credit to position the European maritime industry
Atal Solutions is active in a number of industries besides shipping.
The premise for each of its projects is the same, to maximise export credit to help reduce contractual risks between the owner and the technology firms.
“This is an unbelievable business opportunity and you get retrofit business in Europe,” Sieswerda said. “You can then position European solution providers as leading companies.”
A former financial lawyer and investment banker, he describes what he now does as financial engineering.
“The business model is unique,” Sieswerda said. “We procure all the relevant services and goods and sell to the project owner.
“We looked for the vessels and the design partners, asking what retrofits will make sense commercially.”
To do this for the four-vessel project, Sieswerda is working with the Netherlands export credit agency Atradius.?Initially, Atradius demanded that any retrofit project that they would back had to be on a Dutch-built ship, but that soon changed, Sieswerda said.
“We had to convince the Netherlands export credit people to allow foreign-built vessels to be part of the export finance scheme,” he said.
“They also demand a minimum content of the financial package be linked to Dutch exports.”
Sieswerda is working with Damen Green, the clean-tech division of Damen Shipyards, to secure that requirement.
The four vessels are
32,311-dwt BAM Proteus (ex-Ha Long Bay, built 2007)
领英推荐
32,411-dwt BAM Despina (ex-Mykonos Bay, built 2009)
30,009-dwt BAM Triton (ex-Aspasia Bay, (built 2012)
30,003-dwt BAM Arion (ex-Kyri Bay, built 2012).
How satellites spot ships involved in dark oil transfers
When a VLCC began discharging oil to a smaller tanker in a ship-to-ship operation near the Malacca Strait this summer, ship tracking data suggested the vessels were somewhere else — and nearly 13 km apart.
The Comoros-flagged 300,000-dwt Itaugua (built 1997) had long been linked to the Iranian trade so it came as little surprise when the veteran tanker laden with 2m barrels of crude was tracked passing through the Gulf of Oman heading to Asia in late July.
‘Record level of investment’ in alternative fuel newbuilds as shipping emissions climb
Alternative fuelling uptake for newbuildings is rising with half the vessels contracted in 2024 being built with the capability to use new fuels, up from about 40% a year ago, according to Clarksons Research.
Unveiling the past year’s data from his team’s Green Technology Tracker, Clarksons Research global head Steve Gordon said: “With overall newbuild order volumes reaching their highest level since 2007, alternative fuel has continued to play a prominent role representing 50% of all tonnage ordered in 2024.”
But Gordon also had another message. “We now estimate that shipping’s global GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions will have increased by about 4% year on year in 2024 to over 1bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent on a well-to-wake basis and have moved above pre-Covid-19 levels.”
Insurers should reward tech-savvy shipowners seeking to improve safety and cut losses
Shipowners are not being rewarded with lower premiums from insurers for fitting vessels with technology aimed at improving safety and cutting losses, according to the head of insurance broker Atlantic.
Cameras allied to artificial intelligence can detect fire dangers, improve navigation and monitor working practices — all leading to a reduction in claims, Atlantic chief commercial officer Richard Adler said.
But that did not feed into better financial benefits for far-sighted owners who use the systems to improve their vessel safety records and see greater fuel savings, fewer detentions and less downtime as a result, he said.
Adler called for an upgrade with underwriters using more sophisticated models to ensure that game-changing technology is rewarded with lower insurance premiums.
The way vessels are priced has not changed for decades, based on limited data such as claims histories, size and age of a ship and the trade routes it plies, he said.
South Korea’s dedicated technology testbed vessel set for first trials in 2025
It may lack the ambition and grandeur of many historic vessel names, but the K-GTB is going to help South Korea push its green technology and digital prowess to the next level.
K-GTB — Korea-Green Ship Testbed — has been built for the Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO).
It is a dedicated vessel that throughout its life will have new technologies, new systems and new ideas installed and put through sea trials.
Some of the first trials during 2025 will be in the use of new fuels and electric-hybrid propulsion. But it is also going to be used to evolve autonomous vessel systems.