Vessel Performance requires Reliability

With the HFO price approaching USD 500/mt and the great unknown of the impact of the IMO 2020 Sulphur cap now barely 9 months away, Vessel Performance, and the associated fuel savings, are back at the top of operators’ and charterers’ minds. However, investments in complex technologies such dynamic trimming, digital twins and air lubrication are difficult at a time where TCE rates are under pressure and the BDI is not far off 3 year lows. Slow-steaming is often the first tactic as little (or no, depending on the main engine type) investment is required. Due to the cubic relationship between speed and fuel consumption, a 10% reduction in speed, leads to a 27% reduction in daily fuel consumption, but how much slower can vessels go? Since the Global Financial Crisis, vessels have slowed down significantly, as much to take excess capacity out of the market, as to save on fuel (and therefore emissions). These days many ocean-going vessels would be over-taken by the “tea-clippers” of the 19th century.

Slow-steaming brings its own challenges with lower turbo-charger pressures and other wear and tear on vessels that were simply not built to go that slowly. Witness the sight of container vessels having their bulbous bows removed…the idea that a container vessel would cruise at 30 kts, as the Maersk B-class vessels were designed to do, would be incredulous today, with its drive for more boxes on ships that move more slowly…

It is critical to ensure that savings in fuel consumption through initiatives such as slow steaming, don’t get more than off-set by reductions in reliability. This is why Asset Integrity Management and a strong Planned Maintenance function are as important as ever. Avoiding a single breakdown, or even just being more predictive with how the on-board spares are bought, can save as much as can be saved through improving vessel performance, particularly on smaller vessels. Just as Vessel Performance systems often rely on data to improve, so should your Maintenance system.

The concept of Condition-Based Maintenance is not new, but we are seeing an increasing number of shipping companies looking to integrate the data that is already being generated aboard their vessels, with their Maintenance software to ensure any significant change in the condition of vital equipment is acted upon straightaway. Here at Spectec, we are certainly starting to see more evidence of this with customers exploring the possibility to link their AMOS PMS system to CBM systems such as James Fisher’s MIMC, the CAT AI system as well as SKF. Let’s make sure that we use all of the data that we already have so that all of our equipment is as reliable as possible today. This will lead to guaranteed savings. Those ship-owners in the enviable position to then make additional investments in Vessel Performance Technologies, should reap further savings, but they need to be able to reassure themselves that none of those savings will be nullified by reductions in reliability.

Martin Penney. Director, Spectec Shipping. March 2019.