Expert's View

  • Day of the Seafarer 2023: A message from Wallem

    Today, on the Day of the Seafarer 2023, Wallem would like to express its gratitude to the many talented men and women worldwide whose unwavering commitment to their profession helps to keep ships sailing and goods moving.

     

  • Beyond the ‘sweet spot’ of speed versus time in...

    Despite the noise around digitalisation, gathering accurate, actionable vessel performance data continues to be a huge issue for shipowners. There are so many optimisation solutions available to owners, each claiming they can save 10-15% of vessel carbon emissions, but there’s no way of judging whether these claims have any value because we can’t know what any of them is being compared to.

  • Taking a closer look at the biggest factors...

    As we move past the vertex of a U-shaped dip in the global shipping sector caused by supply chain restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,  it is worthwhile to look back at the UAE maritime industry’s growth, lessons learned, and development outlook. Although international maritime trade dropped by 4.1 per cent in 2020, the UAE made significant achievements during this period, ranking third globally in the Bunker Supply Index, and fifth globally as a key competitive maritime hub.

     

  • Supporting the Blue Economy with maritime security

    Maritime security is essential to support the Blue Economy in various ways. It refers to protection from threats such as maritime inter-state disputes, terrorism, crimes, narco-trafficking, illegal fishing, arms trafficking, crimes related to the marine environment, and maritime piracy,  which is one of the most significant threats to the growth of ocean-based economies.

     

  • Race to zero carbon emissions: Why hybrid...

    Over the years, sustainability has pushed many players and stakeholders in the maritime industry to explore ways to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing comfort and functionality. The rising rollout of hybrid propulsion systems in marine vessels is one of the ways that the sector has responded to calls for stricter carbon emission monitoring within the community.  

     

  • Charterers drive LNG’s own transition journey

    Some of the world’s largest gas producers are behind moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions along every link in the LNG supply chain – from well to consumer. They are also supporting initiatives that could see every LNG cargo consignment assigned not only a calorific content but also a label, detailing its emissions footprint.

     

  • Sustainable propulsion systems: Building the...

    The steady rise of eco-friendly superyachts anywhere in the world points to how sustainability has found its way in the global yachting community. Given the mounting sustainability movement, the future of the industry now lies in its ability to reduce its environmental impact. Overall, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) targets to decrease the carbon footprint of international shipping by at least 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 2008 levels, and by 70 per cent by 2050. The yachting sector has a role to play in meeting and complying with the IMO targets put in place to protect our oceans and marine life.

     

  • Decarbonising shipping: Could ammonia be the fuel...

    Today 80 per cent of ammonia produced is used exclusively for the fertiliser industry. However, as pressure is placed on the shipping sector to decarbonise and shift away from reliance on fossil fuels, ammonia is looking like an attractive alternative. If 30 per cent of shipping switched to ammonia as a fuel, then the current production would have to nearly double.

     

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Day of the Seafarer 2023: A message from Wallem

Today, on the Day of the Seafarer 2023, Wallem would like to express its gratitude to the many talented men and women worldwide whose unwavering commitment to their profession helps to keep ships sailing and goods moving.

 
English

Beyond the ‘sweet spot’ of speed versus time in vessel optimisation

Despite the noise around digitalisation, gathering accurate, actionable vessel performance data continues to be a huge issue for shipowners. There are so many optimisation solutions available to owners, each claiming they can save 10-15% of vessel carbon emissions, but there’s no way of judging whether these claims have any value because we can’t know what any of them is being compared to.

English

Why oil price volatility persists and is here to stay?

by Arvind Ahuja

2016 was a challenging year, with tight financial markets with low liquidity, restricted cash flows limiting investments in new projects and expansions, a high number of payment defaults, low crude prices hurting the oil and gas industry, removal of subsidies and introduction of taxes or higher interest rates by the oil exporting countries.

For the maritime industry, with its overcapacity choking the freight rates, bulk carriers and dry cargo fleets were the worst hit with Hanjin’s failure highlighting the severity of the crisis.

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Automation in the marine and oil and gas industry

Is it time to call it a new world order when it comes to automation and robotic use in the marine and oil and gas industry? For many years we saw how movies painted a picture of an automated world with robots and human-less services.

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Is it time to realign class and flags?

Omar Abu Omar, President for Gulf Navigation Maritime and Operation in the UAE, believes it may be time to fundamentally review the role of class for flag states. For example, in the currently depressed shipping market there is “huge competition among class societies on prices,” says Abu Omar “to the extent that some services are being offered virtually for free.”

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Why isn’t the oil market recovering faster?

As one of the most sensitive commodities to global change, the current state of black gold remains a mystery to scholars. A gradual build-up of factors including monopolies, natural disasters, supply and demand, credit bubbles, market cycles, global warming and last but not least geopolitics have all come to bear on oil prices. These combined dynamics are far more complex than they in previous recessions.

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