BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 13: A cargo ship moves under the Bayonne Bridge as it heads into port ... [+] on October 13, 2021 in Bayonne, New Jersey. As surging inflation and supply chain disruptions are disrupting global economic recovery, the Washington-based IMF has projected that global gross domestic product will grow by 5.9% this year — a 0.1 percentage point lower than its July estimate. The IMF made the lower forecast in its World Economic Outlook. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Shipping is not an industry that naturally grabs the headlines. It is the kind of sector that grizzled news editors used roll their eyes at and shout ‘next’, unless it involves a ship running aground.
But the sector is increasingly making the news because of congestion in major container ports around the world, which is exacerbating supply chain issues in various sectors.
According to the latest monthly (August) update by the international shipping firm Maersk, overall vessel wait times for the Port of Los Angeles now sit between 0-13 days with wait times of just one to four days for Long Beach.
It adds congestion has continued to build on U.S. Gulf Coast and East Coast ports, as well as at inland and rail terminals.
The reasons for this ocean-going congestion are many, including staff shortages and the economic bounce back from the pandemic, but one key factor could be the nautical tradition that vessels ‘sail fast, then wait’ - or SFTW - as it is sometimes known.
Put simply, STFW means ships put their foot down and get to their destination as soon as possible. They then position themselves outside the port or at anchorage, often with their main engine or their generators running.
Speaking to Forbes, Haris Zografakis, a partner at international law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP, said the impact of this phenomenon was that “ships tend to just go too fast” from one destination to another, and this can have a “massive impact” on the amount of fuel they use and their carbon emissions.
“The shipping business has built-in contractual mechanisms that further encourage and incentivize cargo ships sailing at their normal service speed without regard for the conditions at the port or for other ships sailing to the same destination, which create quite significant obstacles for solving this kind of inefficiency,” he added.
Stephenson Harwood is a co-ordinator of the Blue Visby Solution Consortium, which is testing a new digital platform, similar to an ocean-going air traffic control system and which aims to eradicate SFTW by optimizing arrival times and reduce carbon emissions at the same time.
Taking into consideration parameters such as the performance and characteristics of each vessel, port congestion at destination, and weather conditions, the Blue Visby algorithm provides an optimal target arrival time for each vessel, while keeping their order of arrival as if they had sailed independently.
This enables vessels to slow down, cutting their fuel consumption and emissions, but still keep their place in the queue and arrive one after the other, which reduces unnecessary waiting times outside ports.
The developers say, if applied around the world, the platform has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the global cargo shipping fleet by more than 60 million tonnes of CO2 per year – which is larger than the total emissions of an entire country like Norway.
Mikko Kuosa, chief executive officer at the digital technology provider NAPA, which is also a co-ordinator of the Blue Visby Consortium and helped develop the system, said the potential savings are “much higher” than any of the solutions currently being discussed.
Based on an analysis of 2019 shipping data from 150,000 voyages by 13,000 cargo ships in the 150 most visited ports, NAPA estimates that Blue Visby will enable vessels to reduce their speed by about 1 knot on average, which is well within the operational parameters of the existing commercial fleet. Speed could be reduced on 87% of the voyages, leading to shorter idle times and an average emissions savings potential of 16%.
And there are also additional benefits, according to Zografakis, who quoted a study by Ocean Conservancy, which claimed cutting the average speed of a cargo ship would also reduce the risk of collision between vessels and large sea creatures by between 41% and 65%, depending on the ship type.
Likewise, it could also reduce underwater noise levels by between 47% and 72%, which would also have a huge benefit to sealife.
“Given the urgency of the climate crisis, the world needs solutions that will make a difference today,” said Kuosa.
“From our experience at NAPA, we see the benefits of digital solutions, which are already unlocking tangible fuel and emissions savings through voyage optimization and weather routing. However, solving one of the biggest operational efficiency issues in maritime – ‘the Sail Fast, then Wait’ phenomenon – is not something that a tech company alone can do.
“Today, we are proud to collaborate with fellow industry pioneers on this ground-breaking solution, which is committed to remaining neutral, independent, inclusive and transparent to reduce emissions for the benefit of the entire industry,” he added.