Shipowners need to change perception – LR

Speaking to maritime journalists in London, CEO Richard Sadler said that Lloyd’s Register, with its status as a non-profit distributing charity, was well placed to help its clients change their way of thinking, because it offered traditional values alongside up-to-date technology and the need to pay its way, above all offering an unbiased view, not coloured by politics or profits.

The view was endorsed by new chairman Thomas Thune Andersen, who points to the class society’s ‘Life Matters’ slogan as the new, more socially responsible, way forward. The need to look at the tradeoff between costs and benefits, rather than mere profit, was demonstrated by guest speaker Martin Stopford of analyst Clarksons, who took the example of a typical large container ship, showing that with a bunker price of $200 per tonne, the trade-off between the cost of shipping and the cost fuel suggested an optimum speed of 22 knots. When the bunker price rises to $1,500, as seems possible (predictions of fuel costs have historically proved ridiculously inaccurate) the optimal speed would be halved to 11 knots.

However, marine risk advisor Vince Jenkins pointed out that this was only one view. He could see a case, though he was not endorsing such a view, where the costs of tying up valuable stock over long voyage periods, and the costs of providing extra ships, could make the 30 knot container ship a viable proposition once again. That this is not such a far-off scenario was endorsed by the necessity for more skilled crew on board tomorrow’s high technology ships – few people of that calibre would relish the thought of a long ocean voyage at 12 knots.

The important thing for LR, said Jenkins, was to keep all options open. LR’s job is not to set the rules as to which fuel would be best, for example, but to advise owners that their choice was safe, and viable. Despite recent vents, nuclear remains an option, while LNG looks less likely as a medium-to-long term solution looking at its greenhouse gas performance.