Maritime blog
Long-form articles on shipping, chartering, ports and maritime regulation. Written for shipowners, brokers and cargo owners.
- AI-Driven Crane Servicing: Moving from Automation to Predictive Asset Management — The port industry is transitioning from the first wave of terminal automation to a second wave defined by AI-driven predictive diagnostics, shifting the focus from labor replacement to aggressive OpEx reduction.
- Rotterdam's AI Terminal Goes Live: A Payback Model for Port Automation Capex Decisions — Rotterdam's March 20, 2026 AI container handling deployment claims a 40% loading-time reduction. This article builds a rigorous capex/opex payback model against crew displacement liability, union negotiation costs, and competitive pressure from Le Havre, Hamburg, and Singapore—giving terminal operators and CFOs a decision-grade ROI framework.
- How to Read a Charter Party's Force Majeure Clause Before You Sign — Force majeure provisions can excuse non-performance or delay across an entire voyage — but only if the clause is drafted tightly and invoked correctly. Shipowners, operators, and charterers need to verify six specific drafting points before the fixture is concluded, not after a port closure notice arrives at 02:00.
- Ship certificates & documents: what to carry, where, and when — The full picture of a trading ship’s paperwork — statutory, class, insurance and crew — in one frame: a master certificate registry (what/where/validity), the HSSC survey regime, record books, plans, crew documents and a renewal calendar.
- Sea distance & voyage routing: great circle, rhumb line & the real route — How sea distance really works — great circle vs rhumb line, the sailings, why the sailed route bends around land, canals and ECA zones, and how distance drives sea-days, bunkers and TCE.
- A ship’s particulars decoded: DWT, GT, LOA, draft & TPC — The tonnages and dimensions on a ship’s spec sheet, decoded — DWT vs GT vs NT vs displacement, LOA/LBP/beam/depth, draft, air draft, the load line and TPC — with a worked “will it fit” example.
- Port State Control: inspections, risk profile & detention — How PSC targets, inspects and detains ships — the Ship Risk Profile and New Inspection Regime, the White/Grey/Black flag lists, inspection windows, deficiency codes, what turns a finding into a detention, and the yearly CIC.
- Bunker fuels explained: VLSFO, MGO, LNG, methanol & ammonia — The five-way marine fuel choice in one reference — sulphur, CO₂, energy density, well-to-wake carbon and bunkering availability for HSFO/VLSFO/MGO, LNG, methanol and ammonia, with the numbers that feed a voyage estimate.