SMM Market Intelligence from Clarksons World Fleet Register

SMM: Back from a break 

In early September, the shipping industry gathers in Hamburg for the 30th SMM trade fair. Always a key event for shipyards, repair yards and equipment suppliers. In this analysis, extracted from the Clarksons World Fleet Register, Steve Gordon reviews market developments since the last SMM four years ago.

Steve Gordan looks at the market context behind the focus on the innovation needed to drive the vital maritime green transition while the shipping industry continues to transport over 85% of global trade.

2018: Green Shoots

Back at SMM in 2018, the shipping industry was only beginning to pick itself up ‘off the floor’ and newbuild order volumes were slowly returning after the drought of 2016. Unlike today, the biggest success story was cruise (for the European yards involved). And for many suppliers, opportunities around ballast water (24% of tonnage had a system fitted, compared to 67% of tonnage today, see Table 1) and the IMO 2020 sulfur cap (407 vessels were scrubber-fitted in the fleet in 2018, over 4,600 are fitted with scrubbers in the trading fleet today) were growing. Decarbonisation targets were agreed by the IMO in April 2018, but some of the clarity around IMO 2030 short-term measures was lacking and ordering of alternative-fuelled vessels was limited.

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