Maritime transport remains as the backbone of globalized trade and the manufacturing supply chain, as more than four fifths of world merchandise trade by volume is carried by sea. Despite the slowdown in world-wide economic growth and international maritime trade in the last three years, there are some 50,000+ ships on water at any given time needing repair and maintenance services regularly. The first few months of 2020 have been dominated by the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with effects now filtering through to the shipping markets, although impacts have varied by sector; a severe 5.6% drop in seaborne trade; a 10% drop in port activity; sharp declines in demolition and new build ordering.
Given the current instability in the major shipping markets, we know very well how important it is to control the daily operating costs of every vessel and assist our clients with their efforts to meet their operational KPIs and goals with respect to OPEX optimization, energy efficiency, and of course ensuring compliance with the new IMO 2020 regulations to use LSFO (Low Sulphur Fuel Oil) as of January 2020.
Subsea Global Solutions has underwater fleet maintenance contracts (covering about 2,500 commercial vessels trading world-wide) with several major container lines, tanker and bulk carrier owners, ship management companies, and ship operators, supporting their fleets on a global scale under fixed, lump-sum pricing structures. This ensures the client benefits from tangible savings on regularly scheduled hull and propeller maintenance as well as ad-hoc repair services. It also provides better predictability on future spending, thus allows capability to budget for services more accurately.