When Scorpio Tankers provided data that showed one of its youngest product carriers cut consumption by approximately 30%when compared to a similar unit that lacked the latest enhancements Petter Haugen said he was amazed.
“Scorpio’s 28% improvement on new designs was higher than what we expected but we have no reason to doubt that it’s an accurate calculation,” he told TradeWinds WebTV at the Marine Money Ship Finance Forum in New York this week.
The commentary followed a presentation in which Haugen shed light on how speed optimisation, or slow steaming, is what he described as the “most important factor” in the fundamental supply and demand balances in shipping today.
In a market where containerships, tankers and bulkers are all grappling with historically low freight rates and record high fuel costs the Oslo-based researcher made the case for how vessel earnings are vastly influenced by speed.
