Eco-ships: Poker game or game-changer?

Abstract

Eco-ships: Poker game or game-changer?
In today's challenging shipping markets, few topics are as polarizing in our industry as the merits of eco ship designs.  Proponents refer to the large apparent fuel savings while skeptics point to the fact that more energy efficient operation and minor technical retrofits can achieve substantial savings also for standard tonnage.  Most seem to agree that ordering large volumes of new efficient tonnage at the current point in the cycle is not particularly helpful for the future market outlook.  In this lecture, Professor Roar Adland from the Norwegian School of Economics gives us his view on eco-ships as a former freight trader-turned-economist.  Some key questions that will be addressed are: How are owners of existing tonnage adapting through slow steaming?   Are typical eco-designs touted by the yards actually optimized for the current low rate, high fuel cost environment?  Are fuel savings what they appear to be?  What are the key considerations when reviewing vessel designs from a fuel economics point of view?  While there are no clear-cut answers that will fit all owners and trades, there is plenty of food for thought in the process.
Biography
Professor Adland studied marine engineering in Norway before getting his shipping-economics Ph.D. from MIT in 2002.  He started working for London-based shipbroker Clarksons in 2003 under Dr. Martin Stopford, and joined Clarksons’ fund management division as a portfolio manager for freight derivatives in 2006, where he successfully traded drybulk and tanker FFAs for more than five years.  In 2012 he returned to academia as a chair professor in shipping economics at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), sponsored by the Bergen Shipowners’ Association. Adland’s key areas of interest are bulk shipping markets, freight derivatives, risk management, and the impact of technological and regulatory changes on the global freight markets.
 
More about Prof. Roar Os Ådland 
 
To register please send an email to: birgit.kappert(at)klu.org

The Lecture Series

The KLU Lecture Series is a forum for scientists and practitioners to talk and discuss on state-of-the art topics related loosely to logistics and entrepreneurship.