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The first ever »Maritime Future Summit«, c[ds_preview]o-hosted by HANSA, kicked off this year’s SMM. The event brought some of the most progressive thinkers in the maritime industry to Hamburg

Yesterday, more than 120 industry experts attended the event at Hamburg Messe, co-hosted by the SMM’s official media partner HANSA – International Maritime Journal, the leading German shipping magazine. Featuring a top class cast, challenges and innovations for the shipping industry of the future were presented and discussed at the summit. And seemingly, this future is not that far away anymore.

»In ten years we will have the first unmanned commercial application. Maybe in 20 years 10% of the world fleet will be unmanned,« Oskar Levander, VP Innovation, Rolls-Royce Marine said, sharing his vision of what might lie ahead. He took the auditorium on a journey towards unmanned ships. Paolo Tonon, VP Head of Maersk Maritime Technology, could not totally agree, saying, »I don’t forecast a containership without a crew, at least re-design of ships and components will take 30 to 40 years.«

»The marine industry is under disruptive attack«
Willie Wagen, Director Market Innovation, Wärtsilä

According to Willie Wagen, Director Market Innovation, Wärtsilä, »the marine industry is under disruptive attack« by trends such as digitalization and green technologies. But, in line with all panellists, rather than challenges, he saw chances for new business models for old players and new ones, that enter the market with new ideas. But, in line with all panellists, rather than challenges, he saw chances for new business models for old players and new ones, that enter the market with new ideas. Keynote speaker Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO Maritime of DNV GL, also predicted an increasingly complicated framework for shipping.

Staying in the real world with one foot, Matthias Schulze, Head of Siemens Marine, saw answers to the environmental and economic challenges in the shipping industry in designing hybrid ships. He pointed out the need to adopt several approaches for the best possible solution. »Building ships for Captain Kirk« was the title of Denis Morais’ presentation, Chief Technology Officer at SSI. He saw shipbuilding at a tipping point as a whole collection of different drivers pushed for innovations: »Innovation will accelerate itself and we will have more and more tools in our toolbox to solve problems.« In his opinion, infinite computing will open new possibilities and integration of customers in the design process will ensure faster feedback loops. This backed the opinion of Maersk‘s Paolo Tonon, who pointed out the importance of operator-designer cooperation: »You don’t design a hull for a ship, but for a fleet.«

Whatever the ship of the future will look like, digitalization and Big Data will enable it. Benjamin Vernooij, Internet of Things and End User Computing Lead, Dell OEM Solutions, shared his thoughts on the challenges that huge amounts of data collected by sensors will bring. »Gathering the data is nothing new or complex anymore, but how to make use of the data and get value out of it?« he asked.

»Information may be the currency of the future, but what about real money?« moderator Volker Bertram, DNV GL, asked Carsten Wiebers, Global Head of Maritime Industries, KfW IPEX, who explained the position of a major financer of shipping projects. He showed that future-oriented green and innovative shipping projects have a good chance to attract investors.