Managing Life Time OPEX

The shipping industry, especially the merchant fleet is still suffering hard times. Due to overcapacity, competition is strong, leading to low freight rates. Strict control on operational cost is more important than ever. Optimal fuel/propulsion efficiency is crucial, slow steaming is a widely adapted strategy to reduce fuel consumption. Financial predictability (budget) and risk control are important management objectives.

Over the last years the shipping industry has developed from a component focus towards a total system optimisation. At the same time we notice a trend from transactional business towards long-term service (or partnership) agreements.

Reducing ship speed will reduce fuel consumption, which is a well-known fact. Operators awareness on fuel consumption in various service conditions -shallow draft, trim and rudder angles will also reduce operational cost. Crew awareness trainings are helpful in this area. Less visible but equally effective is regular system optimisation of the total propulsion installation to match the actual operational condition.

Risk control and up-time of the vessels are becoming more important throughout the industry. Various kinds of partnerships and service level agreements provide a good way to have experts involved from the start, ensuring a high level of quality while at the same time the risk can be shared. Long-term agreements or partnerships will enable the service provider to have a truly proactive approach. Risk and cost can further be reduced by applying a Conditioned Based Maintenance (CBM) strategy in combination with remote monitoring and trend analyses. CBM will reduce the risk of unscheduled maintenance and reduce the cost by extending the standard periodical overhauls to longer intervals. The monthly invoicing and shared risk will improve cost control and will make budgeting easy.

Fuel cost is also influenced by fuel availability and fluctuation on the bunker market. Especially for the long-term outlook it is impossible to have a reliable ‘global’ outlook on the fuel prices. Fuel flexibility, or in other words having the possibility to switch between MDO, HFO or LNG will provide the freedom to select the most economical and environmental fuel.

Wartsila’s technology and the global service organisation have been geared to provide our maritime customers high efficiency and fuel flexibility. Our business model is tailored to each customer’s requirements where we notice an increasing demand for more risk sharing and longer, deeper partnerships to improve up time and reduce operational cost. Our dedication to build true partnerships with our leading customers has so far resulted in maintenance agreements for almost 400 vessels.

Henk de Jong
Director Service Unit BeNeLux
Wartsila Netherlands BV