Singapore-based shipping company Swire Shipping has become an official member of the Achilles Maritime Network, a digital platform developed by the UK-based supply chain risk management solutions provider Achilles.
As disclosed, Swire Shipping’s joining the collaborative industry initiative now brings the total number of ships in the program to over 2,200.
According to Achilles, the agreement encompasses the operations of the Singaporean maritime transport player’s 27 owned boxships and multipurpose vessels, deployed across twelve liner services that link over 400 ports in the Asia-Pacific region and globally.
As an end goal, it is understood that the partnership could lend a helping hand to Swire Shipping—which also joined the Global Maritime Forum in November 2023—to further ‘improve’ supply chain due diligence as well as transparency and the application of “international best practices.”
Established in Norway in 1990, Achilles was initially intended to help the offshore oil and gas industry meet health and safety standards ‘more efficiently’ by introducing what is described as a “network effect” , which would allow buyers and suppliers to work together through one platform to reduce duplication and boost compliance.
As informed, the organization collaborates with financial, industrial and commercial, as well as governmental organizations.
A number of major companies from the shipping industry have, over the years, become members of the Achilles Maritime Network. These include Stolt-Nielsen , a Norway-based company specializing in chemical and bulk liquid transportation and storage, and Singapore-headquartered ship owner and operator BW LPG .
Among the relatively recent additions to the Achilles roster is also Norwegian maritime transport company Odfjell, which became a member of the endeavor back in September last year. This was said to be a ‘massive’ move for Odfjell and its climate neutrality-oriented target.
Speaking about this development at the time, Øistein Jensen , Chief Sustainability Officer at Odfjell, elaborated that joining the Achilles Maritime Network offered “access to industry-wide, independently verified supply chain data, insights and benchmarking .”