The prospects of the Maritime Industry for 2023

Shipping has proven its resilience and, I believe, also its adaptability, over the past few years. While we can count on disruption occurring due to several factors, I feel that our industry will meet and overcome any challenges arising.

From an operational perspective I see more efforts in building partnerships across the maritime value chains as, particularly large corporations seek pathways into the coming decades. This means work by shipping companies, cargo owners, class societies and technology groups on new vessel types, new fuel infrastructure and the global trial of green hubs and corridors.

From a communication perspective, we can anticipate some balances shifting as the introduction of new connectivity solutions will enable a much closer connection between vessels and shore either for crew welfare or business purposes.

This is timely, as over the coming year shipping sees the introduction of new rules on vessel performance data come in, both at an IMO and EU level, which will be one of the thrusts to ensure vessel voyage data is properly collected. These rules also put pressure on owners to ensure vessels are operated efficiently so data analysis will increase with performance software now ubiquitous.

I am also really pleased to see growing awareness and more frequent focused initiatives towards the diversification of workforce and job roles within our industry. The rapid changes will require of shipping to be open to new ideas and new business models. Most importantly, it is encouraging to see that at a time when technology and data are a necessary priority for shipping, in parallel, we see great focus on understanding and further improving onboard conditions. This is needed if we are to see more young people embracing a career onboard.

“The dry cargo market will mainly be affected by how China moves. The wet market may present a bit of a challenge. The LNG carrier market is probably the most predictable market based on current conditions. The container market, which has gradually returned to November 2020”.