Maritime industry on standstill

The report – ‘Debunking the Mythical Beasts of Maritime Digital Transformation’ – found that 78% agree that change and technological innovation is positive but 45% have a ‘volatile’ attitude towards it, 36% resist it and 18% do not think the industry fully understands what it is or why it is needed.

“This report makes clear that the industry agrees that digitalisation is essential to the future of shipping,” said Michael Christiansen, vice president, smart vessel, Wärtsilä.

“But little tangible progress has been made to date because of wildly different and vague interpretations of what digitalisation actually means,” he added.

Wärtsilä surveyed professionals across Europe, the Middle East, US and Asia-Pacific with 221 respondents replying. It found that over two thirds (68%) of industry professionals believe that the ability to digitalise existing infrastructure and retrofit vessels is challenging, and over half (56%) think that the time and cost implications involved are too high.

Lack of skills and knowledge

On top of that, 63% believe that there is a lack of skills and knowledge among seafarers to fulfil the requirements of new technologies.

Whilst 70% understand the benefits of digitalisation, almost the same proportion (69%) think collaboration could be improved with 88% agreeing that this is the key to making the transformation a reality.