- Industry leaders at London International Shipping Week (LISW) stress the urgent need for digital integration in a fragmented maritime sector.
- Experts call for a unified “single source of truth” to drive predictive intelligence and eliminate operational inefficiencies.
- As digitalisation accelerates, cybersecurity and global technological inclusion emerge as critical priorities.
The global shipping industry is facing what experts describe as a high-stakes race against obsolescence, not a gradual tide of change. At London International Shipping Week (LISW), speakers underscored the dual challenge of introducing advanced digital technologies into a fragmented maritime landscape, while defending against an increasingly hostile cyber environment.
At the ABS Sustainability Summit, Robert Gaina, Senior Vice President (Commercial) at Ardmore Shipping, captured the sentiment:
“Given the fragmentation of the shipping industry and the old-school mentality, digitalisation has a real opportunity to bridge the old with the new. The ability to make quicker decisions will be really valuable.” However, economic constraints remain a major barrier, particularly for small and mid-sized shipowners who dominate global trade. Robert Desai, CEO of V. Ships, pointed out that the average shipowner manages only five vessels, with limited cash flow to invest in “fancy solutions.”
He advised technology vendors to consider value from the owner’s perspective:“What would it take for them to spend their hard-earned cash on that particular system?”
Building a Single Source of Truth
For those capable of investing, the focus is on creating a “single source of truth” — a unified, verified dataset accessible to all stakeholders.
Desai warned that without data uniformity, the industry risks “confusion and conflict.”
Niraj Nanda, Chief Commercial Officer at Anglo-Eastern, framed digitalisation not as an upgrade but as a transformational restructuring:“A single source of truth is a unified data set that is validated and verified and can be shared across all stakeholders. If you have this, you eliminate errors, omissions, and inconsistencies.”
Meanwhile, Gaina emphasised the shift toward predictive intelligence through AI-driven foresight:“Predictive AI changes fundamentals. We move from reactive to predictive—and that comes with quality and historical data. If we do not have available data, we will disappear.”
Levelling the Global Playing Field
While advanced economies are moving toward high-tech operations, technological inclusion remains vital for global progress.
Nusrat Ghani MP, Deputy Speaker of the UK House of Commons, called for sharing knowledge and tools with emerging economies to ensure equitable development.
Echoing this, Regina Asariotis, Chief (A.I.), Trade Logistics Branch, UNCTAD, reminded participants that shipping’s interdependence makes collaboration essential:“Shipping is the epitome of a global industry. Global industry requires global cooperation. Developing countries often face higher transport costs, and any disruption affects them most. Helping them share in the technology benefits all.”
The Cyber Battlefield
Alongside innovation, cybersecurity is now a defining concern for the maritime world.
Professor James Henry Bergeron, Political Advisor to the Commander at NATO Allied Maritime Command, acknowledged that the sector has already suffered major cyberattacks, with adaptation across industries remaining “uneven.” He observed that commercial shipping and banking are actually ahead of other sectors in addressing cyber threats but warned against treating cyber risks in isolation:“What starts in cyber doesn’t stay in cyber. The volume of attacks we face is hard not to call a war by any other name.”
His remarks underscored the need for collective resilience, as maritime networks continue to face relentless digital assaults that test both national security and commercial stability.
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Source: Baltic Exchange
