We4Sea: IMO Rule to Boost Fuel Costs by Up to 50 Pct

In less than 200 days the International Maritime Organization’s sulphur cap would be implemented, bringing with it a surge of up to 50% in fuel costs, according to Dutch ship-monitoring company We4Sea.

Ninety percent of all trade worldwide is carried by ships that use vast amounts of fuel, up to 100,000 litres per day, the company added. The new regulations will lead to additional annual costs of several millions of dollars per ship, starting on January 1st, 2020.

Almost all shipping companies and charterers still use Noon data – reported once a day – as their main source of management information, “while most of them agree it is a lagging indicator, characterized by high potential for human error due to manually observed and reported average values.”

We4Sea has released a new update of their online software platform, replacing noon-reports as the main source of management information with real-time Digital Twin based fuel consumption monitoring.

The technology allows that any ship can be monitored on fuel consumption and emissions, and does not require any on-board monitoring equipment. The software solution supports full transparency in fuel consumption of ships, and can be used to optimize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, We4Sea explained.

The company said that the software module was developed with a focus on charterers with no direct access to the vessel. In addition, other stakeholders such as financiers or banks can now continuously monitor the CO2 emissions of their financed assets in real-time via an on-line dashboard.

Through pilot projects, We4Sea found out that using data analysis can substantially cut fuel costs, up to 20%.

“High-resolution monitoring and reporting is the first step in improving fuel-efficiency…Monitoring and optimizing fuel-efficiency will not only have a direct impact on financial results, but it will also improve the sustainability of their operations and lead to a reduction of CO2,” Michiel Katgert, CTO of We4Sea, said.