Shipowner technical and commercial teams need to collaborate to face CII challenges says Torm CEO
Pending energy efficiency regulations are set to transform how chartering and operational departments interact with each other and create behavioural changes. The decision by the International Maritime Organization to introduce the Carbon Intensity Indicator and the EEXI, the Existing Ship energy efficiency indicator are forcing shipowners to recalibrate ships, assess slow steaming and particularly with the CII prepare for continued incremental changes if tonnage is to gain a high rating and appeal to charters.
This will create a need for out of the box thinking according to Jakob Melgaard, CEO of Danish shipowner Torm and current chair of Danish Shipping.
Talking during an opening address at the World Maritime Technology Conference in Copenhagen Meldgaard said that while shipping needed to think more out of the box than ever before, he said that there needed to be behavioural change, particularly with technical and commercial colleagues in shipowner organisations.
“We must think out of the box. Ship efficiency is important, but the efficiency of the entire transport chain must be considered and also optimized, he told the audience of the World Maritime Technology Conference taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark.
”So here we also need to look at the terms, we need to look at the charterparty agreements to ensure that all stakeholders are incentivized to minimize consumption and thereby images,” he added also saying shipping companies should all look into their organizations to promote the behavioural change, towards reducing emissions in everything we do.”
“That includes technical but also commercial colleagues. Cooperation here between all of the stakeholders we are managing will be key, he said.”
Following on from Meldgaard, Bimco CEO David Loosely pointed to the work that his organisation has been doing on charter parties to meet pending regulations both regional and international.
“Bimco’s task is to ensure the contractual backbone is in place so industry can operate and be compliant without that disruption to world trade,” he said “As an example, we’re already building clauses for charter parties in relation to the EU ETS, the CII regulation and also EEXI, in fact, that’s already out”.
New clauses in charter parties will allow vessel owners and charterers better share responsibilities and rewards, notably for fuel savings incurred when a vessel does not sail under a ‘basic’ charter party clause. Another clause along those lines alluded to by Loosely is linked to Bimco’s work on just in time sailing to allow vessels to arrive in port or harbour fairways when they have a berthing slot, and not at an uneconomical speed written into a charter party only to then have to sit at an anchorage until they can enter the port.
The World Maritime Technology Conference, running all week is focused heavily on the route to decarbonisation with strong focus on methanol and ammonia as fuel options
