The shipping industry is responsible for more than 2.5% of the world’s emissions. If the shipping sector were a country, it would be the sixth largest polluter in the world.

It is difficult to imagine today’s world without the ease of electronic salary payments, online and mobile banking. While the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the digitalisation of banking, the shipping industry is still slow to ride on this wave. With BSM NiumPay, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) intends to make digital payment more accessible to seafarers across the globe.

As technology development continues at pace in the subsea space, a young innovative group out of Switzerland—Hydromea—unveiled the prototype of what it is calling the "world’s first" wireless underwater drone in a pool demo. 

Schlumberger and NOV, giant oilfield services and equipment companies, announced a partnership on Monday to help oil and gas producers and drilling contractors implement automated drilling technologies faster. 

An international alliance of 45 companies, research institutes, and port authorities, headed by the Port of Rotterdam Authority, has received EU funding for a new project focusing on the greening of port operations. The consortium will be using this grant to execute 10 pilot projects and demonstration projects that focus on sustainable and smart logistics in port operations.

The BPA has today published research into mobile coverage and deployments in ports, undertaken alongside experts in digital connectivity, Telint.

Leading U.S. tug and logistics operator Foss Maritime is installing an autonomous control system aboard its latest tug, the Rachael Allen. The new ASD harbor tug will be the first in the United States to integrate autonomous systems into real-world commercial operations, and it marks a significant milestone for the small but growing class of autonomy-equipped workboats on the global market. 

NAVTOR has announced a major upgrade of its NavStation software, introducing new features delivering enhanced security, usability, accuracy and efficiency for an increasingly digitized shipping industry. The solution, which originally launched in 2014 as the world’s first digital chart table, has been revamped to offer more seamless passage planning, faster and higher quality rendering of charts, even more robust cyber security, and better functionality for busy vessel navigators.

by Peter Fitzpatrick, Vice President, Global Business Development and Account Management, ABS

While LNG carriers have a relatively short history, they have been subject to a continuous evolution in their design and operational parameters over the last decade. Many of the design changes reflect the natural maturity of the industry, others have come in response to technical, operational and regulatory changes.

At the Singapore Maritime Week (SMW) organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) earlier this month, Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung launched the second phase of MPA’s digitalPORT@SGTM.