Logistyka Archive

Demand for alternative fuels is growing in ports. LNG is making a comeback

Posted in: Artykuły, CRM, Logistyka, Makroekonomia, Nowe Technologie

By Marek Grzybowski

Lower LNG prices have resulted in greater demand for gas in ports. In Rotterdam, LNG sales increased by almost 109% quarter-on-quarter, reaching 266,000 tonnes in the second quarter. m³. In Singapore, shipowners in June bunkered 17.9 thousand. m³, and in July 18.3 thousand. m³ of LNG. It is predicted that there will also be a demand for methanol, which may become the fuel of the future.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted global LNG markets and pushed LNG prices to over $2,500 a ton in Rotterdam and over $2,000 a ton for a bunker in Singapore last year. However, prices have dropped significantly since then and LNG has been available at big discounts for several months now. Gas on ships again became more attractive than VLSFO, which was quickly seen in the world’s major ports, where bunker turnover reaches significant volumes.
In Rotterdam, LNG sales amounted to 112,069 m³ in Q2 2022. LNG sales in Q2 were also the highest quarterly sales volume since Q3 2021 (212,719 m³). In the first half of 2023, LNG sales amounted to 265,892 m³. For comparison, in the same period of 2022, 214,648 m³ were fueled on ships. Ship operators or ship management companies were concerned about price volatility and the possibility of using regular gas supplies.

Economic activity and bunker prices
The Port of Rotterdam Authority announced that the total sales volume of the bunker in Rotterdam (excluding lubricants) fell by 10% in the second quarter of 2023. Low sales of VLSFO were decisive.
Demand fell in the second quarter of this year. by 8% to 906,368 tonnes, which is 15% lower than in the previous year. In Q2, traditional marine fuels continued to dominate the demand, as their share reached 38% of total sales.
HSFO sales increased by 5% in the second quarter, and the share of this fuel in sales increased from 30% to 35%. Total sales volume also increased during the year, reaching an 18% increase compared to 2021 levels.

This year, for the first time, owners of dual-fuel LNG ships have an economic justification to benefit from investments in innovative power systems for new types of ship engines.
However, since for most of the 1920s the price of LNG was too high, the vast majority of operators of dual-fuel vessels used traditional marine fuel.

Gasum will reduce carbon dioxide emissions
As soon as gas became cheaper, it was also profitable to introduce a bunker to the market. In June, the tanker Kairos returned to operation as part of Gasum. It is an LNG bunkering vessel owned by Gasum. From October 2022, the shipowner directed it for use on the open market outside the company.

It is assumed that the biogas offered by Gasum will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 90 percent compared to traditional fossil fuels. “Increasing the use of bio-LNG is one of the concrete actions that will lead the shipping industry towards a low-emission future,” the company said.
“Gasum’s strategic goal is to market seven terawatt hours (7 TWh) of renewable gas annually by 2027. Achieving this goal would mean an annual cumulative reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions for Gasum customers,” the company explained.
this summer the operator carried out the first LNG bunkering operation at the port of Reykjavik, Iceland. Coral Energy’s LNG bunker supplied LNG and liquefied biogas (LBG) for the engine room of the PONANT Le Commandant Charcot cruise ship.

Time for a Polish LNG tanker bunker
The introduction of such tankers as Coral Energy and Kairos into operation in Poland was discussed on the occasion of the launch of the LNG terminal in Świnoujście. For many years, dual-fuel engines with the possibility of burning gas began to dominate the portfolios of orders for ships.
According to the latest estimates by the classification society DNV, the number of ships with dual-fuel engines and LNG systems that are in service and on order has exceeded 900 units. Kairos is a good example for a potential operator of a Polish LNG bunker.
The tanker has been designed so that it can deliver LNG to ships of various types and sizes in all possible bunkering locations in North-West Europe. The vessel can deliver LNG at pumping rates from 60 m³ per hour to 1,250 m³ per hour. Perhaps it is time to introduce the Polish LNG bunker to the Baltic market.

ESG – trend or necessity? Shipping, ports, offshore and shipyards under the pressure of innovators

Posted in: Anti-equilibrium, Firmy, Innovation, Logistyka, Marketing, Nowe Technologie, Prawo

By Marek Grzybowski

An ESG guidance for shipping was published this summer,. The implementation of an ESG strategy in shipping has implications throughout the ship supply and operation chain, from design through manufacturing, operation and port service.
The guide, developed jointly by Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping experts together with Boston Consulting Group analysts, is intended to help companies operating in maritime transport implement comprehensive ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategies. The essence of ESG was explained during a special webinar by Tanja Dalgaard, Chief Strategy & Operations Officer, Anne Katrine Bjerregaard Head of Strategy & Sustainability Office, Mikkel Krogsgaard Managing Director & Partner, BCG Peter Jameson Partner, BCG.
– In the world of maritime business, as in other industries, ESG reporting covers topics such as recycling, greenhouse gas emissions, other types of air pollution, environmental impact, business ethics, employee health and safety, as well as safety management and prevention accidents, explain DNV experts.
Remi Eriksen, Group President and CEO, DNV and Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL, pointed out the need for a comprehensive approach to the implementation of the ESG strategy during the presentation of the “Energy Transition Outlook 2023” and “Maritime safety trends” reports during Nor Shipping 2023.

ESG sets standards
According to DNV, ESG reports and sustainability reports are intended to reveal the achievement of parameters in all three areas that are important for the functioning of a modern company. Reporting these parameters is intended to meet the expectations of stakeholders cooperating with the partner.
It’s about being transparent in assessing corporate responsibility. The report makes it possible to publish information that a business partner has rules, initiatives and strategies for managing under risk conditions and the ability to take advantage of the opportunities offered by management that takes into account ESG requirements.
In maritime industries, reports are published by leading companies operating both in the shipbuilding industry and maritime transport, in ports and offshore, in fishing and tourism, as well as companies operating in the vicinity of these industries.

ESG in ports

“Cargo operators recognize the role of ports [in implementing the ESG strategy] and will favor those who act according to the requirements,” noted Mark Nailer, head of the maritime division at Midstream in an article for Hellenic’s “Shipping News Worldwide”. In his opinion, “the adverse impact of the global port and terminal sector on [substances and CO2 – MG] emissions and local communities is significant.
Emissions and air pollution account for a large part of this impact, while the safety of workers [ports – MG] is another major concern. It is estimated that reducing port emissions could directly improve the health of more than 3.5 billion people by reducing air and water pollution – and indirectly improve health and well-being by helping to mitigate climate change, Nailer points to the UNCTAD report.

ESG in the shipbuilding industry
In many cases, it has already been said that shipyards should be hybrid, i.e. ensuring production and repairs taking into account environmental, social and ethical requirements.
One of the leading shipyards in implementing ESG is the Hyundai Heavy Industries Group (HHI). Already at the beginning of 2021, it adopted an ESG strategy. Within the five companies operating in the HHI Group, committees have been established for environmental protection, shaping social responsibility and implementing ethical management practices. The five participating companies are: Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., Hyundai Construction Equipment Co., Hyundai Electric Energy Systems Co., Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co.

Why (not only) Shipping Companies Don’t Have an ESG Plan
Increasingly, however, many shippers and logistics companies, as well as final recipients, demand information about the comprehensive carbon footprint related to the transport of goods between ports, and often from the producer to the consumer. High demands are placed on sea tourism and ferry operators. This is increasingly required of fish and seafood producers and processors as well as logisticians operating in this industry.
Offshore oil and gas operators and wind farm builders pay attention to sustainable development. It can be expected that the ESG strategy will soon become the flagship of every company that intends to operate in the maritime industry. On the other hand, the ESG standard will determine the level of involvement of shipowners and ports, offshore operators and fish producers in the sustainable development of our globe.

More: BSSC

BCG – Most Innovative Companies 2023

Posted in: CRM, Innovation, Logistyka, Makroekonomia, Marketing, Raport z Rynku, Zarządzanie Firmą

For the third straight year, the evidence is mounting: companies that both prioritize innovation and make sure that they are ready to act are widening the gap over less capable competitors. The leaders at these firms are consistently delivering new products, entering new
markets, and establishing new revenue streams. The laggards struggle to make headway beyond incremental improvements.

This year, the findings from our global innovation survey dovetail with other new BCG research showing that companies
built for the future share a common set of attributes that enable them to exhibit superior performance, be more resilient to shocks and disruptions, and exploit innovation faster for value-creating growth. In addition to people and technology capabilities (including, importantly, AI), one of these attributes is an innovation-driven culture.

In this year’s Most Innovative Companies report, we examine what innovation-ready leaders (those that are ready to develop product, process, and business model innovations that can deliver sustainable impact) are doing to pull ahead and how innovation is building their resilience to economic uncertainty and fueling their pursuit of lower emissions. In “A Downturn Ups the Stakes in Innovation,” we explore how a potential downturn in 2023 is evoking a much different response than did the 2009 financial crisis, especially among leading firms. In “How Early Winners Are Unlocking AI’s Potential,” we dig into the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) in innovation as in many other areas of business today.

More: BCG Publications 2023

Innovation has never been more important—and leading innovators are showing why. The top 50 companies in the 2023 Most Innovative Companies report outperform the MSCI World Index on shareholder return by 3.3 percentage points per year.

How Leaders Are Demonstrating the Advantages of Innovation

In this year’s Most Innovative Companies report, we examine what innovation-ready leaders (those that are ready to develop product, process, and business model innovations that can deliver sustainable impact) are doing to pull ahead. We also discuss the importance of innovation in terms of how it helps leaders build their resilience to economic uncertainty.

Download the 2023 Most Innovative Companies report

The Formula for Innovation from Leading Companies

Leaders are consistently delivering new products, entering new markets, and establishing new revenue streams, while laggards struggle to make headway beyond incremental improvements.

Read chapter one

Explore the interactive rankings

A Downturn Ups the Stakes in Innovation

Times have changed. During the 2009 downturn, only 58% of companies planned to increase spending and almost 15% expected to cut innovation investment. Today, a growing number of companies are beginning to recognize the advantages of innovation, with 79% ranking it among their top three priorities (15 points more than in 2009) and 66% planning to increase spending (42% by more than 10%).

Read chapter two

How Early Winners Are Unlocking AI’s Potentials

The question is not whether AI can have an impact, but rather if companies are using AI properly and for use cases with the potential to drive real business value.

Read chapter three

Building Resilience and Advantage Through Innovation

Once again, we see the most innovative companies producing greater shareholder returns and building resilience and advantage through innovation. BCG’s 2023 global survey highlights the advantages of innovation and how leaders are outpacing others by using tools whose importance is climbing fast, such as M&A, portfolio planning, and AI.

Our 2023 survey found a near-record high level of innovation importance: 79% of companies ranked innovation among their top three priorities, up from 75% in 2022, and more than 40% expect to significantly increase spending this year, a jump of 16 percentage points over the last economic downturn in 2009.

But there is also an emerging group of companies that is going much further and putting innovation front and center in their future growth strategies. While all companies on average expect to allocate more money toward incremental innovations close to the core, this small group of innovation-ready companies is allocating fully one-third of spending toward developing breakthrough innovations.

These companies use a wide array of strategic tools to strengthen their innovation platforms and practices and are much more aggressive in their use of M&A, targeting innovative technologies or processes, or acquiring leaders and employees with a demonstrated ability to innovate. They also are more likely to orchestrate or participate in ecosystems, engaging with external partners—and even competitors—on innovations. They drive digital innovation with a clear bias toward new digital products, agile teaming, and improving customer and marketing insights. They leverage the power of innovation in AI, and regularly review the performance of innovation units or vehicles and shift resources toward centers of success. They understand that effective portfolio governance and management, especially with respect to data transparency, are key to driving impact.

Explore 17 years of the 50 most innovative companies

Authors: By Justin Manly, Michael Ringel, Amy MacDougall, Will Cornock, Johann D. Harnoss, Konstantinos Apostolatos, Ramón Baeza, Ryoji Kimura, Michael Ward, Beth Viner, Jean-Manuel Izaret, Wendi Backler, Vladimir Lukic, Sylvain Duranton, and Romain de Laubier

Gary Miles, CEO of Gentrack, tells delegates at Future of Utilities that the world needs to learn lessons from Australia’s “energy as a service” model

Posted in: Anti-equilibrium, Logistyka, Makroekonomia, Marketing, Nowe Technologie

Utilities can’t afford to wait to transform, the benefits significantly outweigh the risks

IT transformation will be critical to deliver the energy transition. Gary Miles, CEO of Gentrack, tells delegates at Future of Utilities that the world needs to learn lessons from Australia’s “energy as a service” model.

Transitioning to a low carbon world involves huge upstream and midstream investment in solar, wind turbines and grid infrastructure to cleanly and reliably deliver electrons to people and businesses. But, as Gary Miles, CEO of Gentrack, made clear in his keynote presentation at the recent Future of Utilities Energy Transition conference, the IT systems which underpin the workings of the modern retailers and gen-tailers must transform to adapt to the decentralisation and decarbonisation challenges ahead.

Get this right and there’s huge upside, both for the utility provider and the customer. “Amazing customer experience, digital first engagement, lower debt, more than 99.5% accurate billing and reduced cost to serve, with automation helping to deliver 30-40% lower cost-to-serve,” said Miles

Miles is a newcomer to the energy industry, having spent most of his career in the telecoms industry. “Telecoms had the largest impact on GDP in the world over the last 30 years, delivering information and education to billions of people,” said Miles. “It’s been an amazing vehicle of progress for the world.”

“The energy industry today is more dynamic than the telecoms space. The pace of change is accelerating and the existential need to modernize is more profound.”

By comparison, few people would consider utility providers to be hubs of innovation. Yet this would, said Miles, be a misconception. “From time-of-use tariffing to virtual power plants there is an innovation highway ahead of energy suppliers and the industry today is more dynamic than the telecoms space was,” he said. “The pace of change is accelerating, and the complexity is enormous, but so are the opportunities.”

To illustrate his point, Miles highlighted the success stories from Australia, which, having been hard hit by blackouts, is now powering ahead with renewable and decentralised energy. The Australian Energy Market Operator and Energy Networks predict that generation from decentralised sources will be up to around 45% by 2040 – indeed, the country is already the number one in the world for solar PV per capita. This isn’t just about being blessed with good weather – after all, the country is also rich in oil, gas and coal – but about policy and investment.

Government policy has accelerated the uptake of solar and battery systems, which in turn is leading to innovations in customer propositions.

Energy as a service

“One of the more recent innovations we’re seeing, powered by technology, is leveraging flexible behind-the-meter load from Solar and EVs,” Miles says, highlighting the work of Gentrack client Energy Australia. They offer householders installations of solar PV and battery systems with zero up-front cost, and at the end of seven years they own the system. The solar option is highly popular, and the battery roll out is also growing fast; around 140,000 homes already have batteries, with the number installed expected to rise to 800,000 by 2025.

“Most importantly, for the consumer this is a super simple and very affordable proposition.”

“Consumers pay a flat energy rate for seven years on an ‘energy as a service’ model,” Miles explained. “Energy Australia leverages their ability to aggregate this flexible load and bid it into the grid as a virtual power plant, so they can take advantage of wholesale revenue streams. Most importantly, for the consumer this is a super simple and very affordable proposition.”

“Your systems need to deliver a simple customer experience in the face of extreme complexity”

This is key, and it’s why the IT side is just as important as the panels and batteries. To work, the hugely complex, multi-faceted and vastly expensive energy transition must be presented to the end-user as simple, reliable and good value for money. “Your systems need to deliver a simple customer experience in the face of extreme complexity,” said Miles.

While telcos responded to the cyclical waves of innovation that would routinely hit every eight years or so by renewing and reinventing their IT infrastructure, Miles believes that the systems powering much of the energy industry are stagnant and act as a brake, rather than an accelerant, on progress.

“The IT systems of many retailers are old and broken,” he told delegates. “The systems are 20-30 years old and they’re leaking and creaking. The shift to upgrade and transform has happened in leading markets with huge success as retailers move off of these antiquated systems. The rest of the world is due to follow as it sees that such transformations are both achievable and able to deliver significant results.”

Existing legacy systems are, quite simply, not fit for purpose if the energy transition is to be achievable to any meaningful timescale.

“Today, leading utilities are telling us that their legacy systems are like cement in their businesses,” he said. “Those platforms are literally weighing their organisations down and stopping them from moving forwards.”

“Leading utilities are telling us that their legacy systems are like cement in their business.”

Investing for a smarter, greener future

The good news is that this overdue investment is now being made. Miles cited statistics from a leading industry analyst that suggest that all of the utilities companies will upgrade their systems in this decade and the first 20% will choose a replacement system by 2026.

And this comes with a kicker in the tail. “If you don’t do it, you will fall further and further behind,” he said, stressing this wasn’t just an energy company issue; water companies need to make this investment too.

These investments in IT are part of the enabling technologies for the energy transition. Because clean energy isn’t just about turbines and solar; as demonstrated by Energy Australia, it’s about building a grid that can deal with intermittency and distributed generation, flexing and adapting and hedging to changing inputs and outputs, offering dynamic pricing and giving more power to consumers – who are becoming generators in their own right.

Get this right and there’s huge upside, both for the utility provider and the customer. “Amazing customer experience, digital first engagement, lower debt, more than 99.5% accurate billing and reduced cost to serve, with automation helping to deliver 30-40% lower cost-to-serve,” said Miles.

What’s more, this kind of digital transformation can be done relatively quickly, using low-code, no-code technologies. “It means you can be launching innovative propositions and new services in days rather than months,” he said.

The energy transition is going to require constant innovation and systems will need to be able to flex, whether it’s in response to new technologies, customer behaviours or market conditions. Future optionality can come from being part of an open ecosystem, enabling companies to partner with specialists and leverage existing capabilities. This is a new way of thinking and working for many in the utilities sector but it’s going to be essential to deliver perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing humanity: the transition to a low/no carbon future.

“The world needs to look at places like Victoria in Australia, and make that leap,” stressed Miles. “The time to do this was yesterday.”

As delegates at the conference would no doubt agree, the next best time is now.

More: MarketForceLive

GALATEA Results – 23 innovative projects involving 42 companies from 5 different countries

Posted in: Anti-equilibrium, Logistyka, Marketing, Zarządzanie Firmą

GALATEA Results GALATEA-catalogue 2023

GALATEA has directly financed 23 innovative projects involving 42 companies from 5 different countries. More than 2.21 M € have been distributed.

49 coaching services have been provided to 30 SMEs to get support on Business model elaboration, Technology expertise, Internationalisation and Funding Opportunities.

4 workshops (Internationalization in support of innovation, Business Model Elaboration, Branding and Communication and How to pitch your Business/idea) have been conducted by consortium partners involving 59 companies.