ShipCrunch

Shake your money maker - Start-up Profile: Light Structures

Not exactly a start-up but in full commercial ramp-up mode, this little outfit's got big potential

By Ryan Skinner (email)

One of Light Structures' founders, Karianne Pran, holds a Light Structures fibre-optic sensor, together with Managing Director Inge Paulsen

It wasn't long ago I saw a spooky video showing the twisting and swinging of a (usually) straight corridor running the length of a ship in a storm. To those of us who only the dry, commercial end of the shipping business, seeing how these rigid structures turn fluid in rough seas is, well, unsettling.

And what does a lifetime of these contortions do to steel? Basically, every bulker afloat has a basic, mechanical system to measure lifetime stresses on the hull. A small, research-driven company called Light Structures reinvents this basic task in a way that may significantly extend the lifetime of ships.

The Five Big Marketing Ideas of Shipping

If you thought it was all about environment, price or partnerships, you'd be wrong.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

For all its desire to stay the same, shipping's changing. You can feel it in the desires of customers and the customers' customers, both shippers and carriers. And anyone talking to them better tune their story accordingly.

Here are the five big issues that marketers in shipping should be thinking about when framing their arguments and conversations:

I'll show you mine, if you show me yours (#measurement)

Has shipping finally gotten a decent yardstick to beat itself (senseless) with? It might.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

This week Maersk announced that it had obtained Lloyd's Register certification for a scheme to measure carbon emissions from its ships. From now on, it would:

Add the carbon dioxide (CO2) data - verified by Lloyd’s Register - as one of eight performance measures in score cards that are presented to customers.

That is, the data will be certified, not just a figure jerry-rigged by a hyperactive business development manager. In the article in Bunkerworld, a representative from Starbucks got all frothy about the ability to put together complete supply chain emissions records. It's something I understand the rest of the supply chain has been waiting for: accurate emissions figures for the sea link.

Go to sea? Go to hell!

Whining about the paucity of new maritime recruits shows results: A headache and no medicine.

By Ryan Skinner (email)

The President of Travelers' Ocean Marine Division Richard DeSimone sounds the kind of alarm one might expect a marine insurance group to sound. I quote: If something isn't done about seafarer recruiting, and that quick, we in the insurance business are going to be neck deep in pooh, soon. OK, I rephrased a little.

He's got reason to be scared pantless. Marine insurers are walking along a tightrope as they try to remain commercially competitive (read: cheap, in a very transparent market) while the people with ultimate control over their fates (seafarers) are getting increasingly scarce. If I were liable for damages to a ship up to some hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd want the pick of the litter running the boat. Shipping's not attracting the pick of the litter.