Page 40: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2012)

40 | Maritime Professional | 3Q 2012GREEN DESIGNShipping lines trying to stay a step ahead of legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions are embracing the development of ?greener? vessels, but the urgency with which the industry is pursuing fuel-ef cient ships is be- ing driven by pure commercial considerations. Fuel accounts for more than two thirds of the operating costs of a vessel. As carriers struggle with weakening demand and sharply falling pro tability, the need for innovation in ship design has become more pressing than ever. ?We are entering into a renaissance of design,? said Luis Benito, Global Strategic Marketing Manager, Marine at Lloyd?s Register. ?The question is; what is the optimum speed of a container ship right now, and what will it be up until the ship is 15 or 20 years old?? The answer lies in the design, and it has become a search for the elusive area where greater speed and fuel ef ciency meet. It is a complex issue and one that is pegged to the price of fuel, which has such a huge impact on the pro t-ability of a shipping line. For the last couple of years, pro tabil-ity has only been a word spoken in whispers in the corridors of container shipping companies that are struggling to deal with an avalanche of new capacity  ooding into service. Market researchers Alphaliner estimate that the global cellular  eet capacity passed 16 million TEUs in June with an additional 620,000 TEU to be delivered in the second half. Most of this capacity is, or will be, deployed on the main East-West trades. Yet the sovereign debt crisis in Europe has had a devastating effect on Asia-Europe while the transpaci c trade slowed as US consumers tightened their belts. Burdened by excess ca- pacity, the resulting fall in freight rates saw the liner industry collectively losing US$8 billion last year. With the  rst half of the year out of the way, the predictions for 2012 are not encouraging. Container lines have been slowing vessels for the last three years to cut down on fuel consumption, but lengthening transit times is a practice that gets liner custom- ers steaming. Adding days, and sometimes more than a week, to a voyage costs cargo owners money and disrupts supply chains. Designing the FixWhat the container shipping business needs is for vessels to sail at the same speeds of three years ago and use less fuel in the process, and it is the quest for this speed-to-consumption operating band that is driving innovation in design. Classi ca-tion societies are playing an increasingly active role in this process, advising shipyards and shipowners to  nd the right design that meets ef ciency needs and is compliant with en- ergy and environmental requirements. ?We work with yards and owners to understand the design range that we need to have,? Benito said. ?We cannot just design ships with certain types of speci cations. We need to expand the minds of designers ? it depends very much on the brain power of the designers and of our people.? Ernst Meyer, regional manager South East Asia for Det Norske Veritas, said there had been a huge improvement in energy ef -ciency forced by the high fuel price, speeding up the development of innovative solutions. ?Fuel is a big cost element for a ship- owner so a yard understands it needs to come up with propulsion systems and hull designs that help with fuel ef ciency,? he said. ?Some designs are developed in Europe and these designs are picked up by Asian yards, under license, but we also see ex- amples where Asian yards are coming up with their own designs and they are improving on the ef ciency side.? The economics of pro tably running a ship have changed with the high cost of fuel and ship designers are trying to raise the economics back up so a vessel can sail at higher speeds while consuming less fuel. Meyer adds, ?Challenging the designers and developing tools where we can look at designs early and analytically to see how they can work within regulations and with yards. But it is more a consulting basis where we use the competence we have in house to develop a better design.? Germanischer Lloyd believes there is growing recognition in the maritime industry that ?off the rack,? whether in ship design and operation or in the management of a  eet, is no longer the only option for carriers. Being able to tailor indi-vidual vessels was essential to continuing pro tability. Steen Brodsgaard Lund, executive vice-president managing director Asia Paci c for Germanischer Lloyd, said measures were being applied to enhance fuel ef ciency and reduce emissions and these were considered during the ship design, the operation of the  eet in the upgrading of existing vessels. ?The GL Group is engaged with ship owners, operators, de- signers, shipyards and other industry players to put to good use the data and experience we have gained,? he said. Competition: by DesignThe result is a resurgence of design, leading to  erce com-petition between the older shipyards in Korea and Japan and the new yards in China. Despite the bottom having dropped out of the container market, low newbuilding prices and new fuel-ef cient designs are attracting orders. Owners are using the opportunity to contract ships at low prices while also re- newing their  eets with more economical ships. ?The industry has woken up and ship owners, yards and design- ers are working very hard,? said Meyer. ?The yards are being forced to give guarantees they did not have to in the past. It is becoming very important. It is a different game now, because if you neglect fuel ef ciency as an owner or a yard, you can be out of business.? Benito said the yards were grabbing the design challenge and understood that it would only be through higher design power that they would be able to compete. ?It is a buyer?s market so the ship owners are in the driving seat and they want to get the best optimized design. But there are so many shipyards that need orders and they are using their design capabilities more than be- fore. Our role is to facilitate that relationship and help both par- ties to develop ships that comply with the rules and that are safe.? LNG-fueled Ships The drive to  nd vessels with better fuel economy and lower