Trelleborg : Safe Sailing

The World Economic Forum estimates that 90 percent of the world's goods are transported by sea. According to the International Chamber of Shipping, that amounts to 11 billion tons of product every year, or 1.5 tons for each person on earth.

This level of shipborne traffic puts intensified pressure on operators and ports to increase efficiency and improve sustainability. One of the main solutions to this challenge reflects a principal trend in the maritime industry: the development of mega ships.

"There are new, bigger and faster container ships every year," says Tommy Mikkelsen, Managing Director for navigation and piloting at Trelleborg, who is involved in the specification of Trelleborg's marine products to ports globally. "Ships are becoming larger and larger."

The early container ships of the mid-1950s were 137 meters or 450 feet long, six containers wide and held just four containers on top of one another above and below water - eight altogether.

Contrast that with the MSC Irina, which is currently the largest container ship in the world. Launched in April 2023 from Guangzhou Port in China, it is 400 meters or 1,312 feet in length. The MSC Irina is three times longer than a ship from the 1950s. It is also much wider and can carry at least ten 20-foot containers across its girth, 26 of which can be stacked on top of one other.

The main driver for larger ships is undoubtedly economies of scale as the bigger a ship, the more cargo it can carry. In addition, the sustainability agendas of big shipping companies, such as Maersk, MSC and CDMA, are a key factor.

"When it comes to sustainability," says Mikkelsen, "our customers are under extreme pressure. It is part of the conversation everywhere. This was not the case five or six years ago; it's really changed."

The more cargo a ship carries, the lower the carbon footprint of the goods onboard, pound for pound. However, these mega vessels can be counterproductive from an environmental point of view.

"Ports are often located where they have been since time immemorial," explains Mikkelsen. Many harbors in Europe are on heritage sites, sometimes even right in the middle of medieval cities. Within such locations, there are extremely limited opportunities to expand.

Dredging is the most obvious solution to allow larger ships that sit lower in the water to dock. The disturbance this creates on the seabed though has a huge negative impact on marine life.

"This environmental issue is further exacerbated because all ships carry sacrificial anodes," says Mikkelsen. These are metal bars placed on the hulls of ships that, through the principle of electrolysis, corrode instead of a ship's hull.

"In the old days, these bars were typically made of lead but nowadays it's usually aluminum, or a compound, but nonetheless it's metals," continues Mikkelsen. "As the anodes corrode, metal particles end up in the silt at the bottom of the waterways. When you start digging in the silt, these particles well up in the water column and can end up in marine life."

To avoid dredging, maneuvering, docking and mooring needs to be as effective as possible. Moving within the confined areas of a port requires accurate and precise measurements to determine how low a ship can be before it hits the seabed. This is where Trelleborg's advanced solutions come into play, Mikkelsen says.

"One of the things that we as a technology partner and provider do is to innovate and find groundbreaking solutions that will allow larger ships into ports," he says. This provides a triple win to ship and port operators, Mikkelsen explains.

"Firstly, the deeper a ship can be in the water column, the more cargo it can carry, lowering costs for ship owners. Secondly, carrying more cargo reduces the carbon emissions from the transport of goods, helping hip operators meet their sustainability targets. And thirdly, the technology to accept larger ships into a port makes the port more competitive because it can achieve more cargo throughput."

Maximizing throughput is paramount to port owners. Not only does it make the ports more economically viable, but it also makes them more sustainable. "The longer a ship waits outside and takes to maneuver into a harbor, the more fuel it burns," says Mikkelsen. "Cut down the time of those two things and you save fuel, making the docking process more sustainable."

The maneuvering, docking and mooring technology that Trelleborg provides to ports significantly shortens times to enter and dock at port. "Without our solutions, on average it would take maybe 30 minutes to moor a ship, but with them it takes just a few minutes," Mikkelsen says.

A pilot is responsible for moving a ship into a secure location and maneuvering, docking and mooring it. Pilots used to do this just using their eyes and their knowledge. Now, however, they can use Trelleborg's portable pilot as well. This navigation system can help pilots do their job more effectively.

"One pilot in the UK says he is a 20 percent better pilot with the assistance of our maneuvering, docking and mooring technology," Mikkelsen says. "It saves a lot of fuel if a ship has the correct trajectory as it enters a port. Maneuvering burns fuel, and the fewer commands given by the pilot, the more efficient the journey will be. When pilots are using Trelleborg's equipment they give fewer commands because they have a prediction of where a ship will be five or 10 minutes ahead. They know that they are on the right track."

Not only does Trelleborg's technology speed maneuvering, docking and mooring up, it also makes the whole process safer.

We lose lives every year due to snapped lines," says Mikkelsen. "Mooring a ship is a very dangerous job, people catch their hands and fingers. The robots that we've developed are hands-free, helping avoid accidents and increasing efficiency as well."

And what about the future of shipping?
"There are several big projects going on that look at the development of self-sailing ships," says Mikkelsen. "It's a nice idea and I definitely see this as part of our future, but it's at least 20 years down the road. With all the technologies available today, if we just focus on creating completely autonomous ships, then we are going to lose opportunities to improve what we do with the shipping fleet we have."

This is an article has been reproduced from Trelleborg's T-Time magazine. To download the latest edition, go to: www.trelleborg.com/t-time