Written by Rune Larsen, Product Marketing Manager | 25 February 2022
Torvald Klaveness is a pioneering shipping company with the vision to improve the nature of shipping and the ambition to make seaborne supply chains resilient, decarbonised and cost-effective.
The group today consists of five business units. Through Klaveness Combination Carriers, the company takes an active part in the transition to low-carbon shipping with the unique concept of combination carriers. The Klaveness Dry Bulk unit is a leading operator and service provider to the global dry bulk industry and manages the world’s largest Panamax Pool. Klaveness Ship Management manages the owned vessels from an environmental, technical and commercial standpoint. Klaveness Digital has developed the world’s leading platform for managing seaborne supply chains.
Their newest venture, ZeroLab by Klaveness, is developing several initiatives to make low-and zero emission options available to their customers.
With more than 75 years’ experience, Torvald Klaveness operates some 75 vessels through offices in Oslo, Singapore, Manila and Dubai, with around 185 employees onshore and close to 850 seafarers.
A major challenge facing the maritime industry is the global decarbonisation targets, which will impose profound changes on the whole shipping industry. IMO and other stakeholders have committed to halving international shipping GHG emissions by 2050 and reducing CO₂ emissions by at least 40% by 2030.
Because of these ambitious targets, shipping companies must focus on three main pillars: new fuels, new technologies and optimised operational measures.
Fleet performance management, digitalisation and data transfer technology play a key role in the optimisation of the operational measures.
Achieving the industry’s ambitious decarbonisation goals requires extensive and continuous reporting from ships. This, in turn, requires a great deal of sensor data to be transported off the vessels.
Klaveness has taken a leading role in the transition toward carbon-neutral shipping. With their decarbonisation gurus at ZeroLab, the Norwegian shipping pioneer is dedicated to accelerating the decarbonisation of seaborne supply chains.
With regard to vessel performance management, Klavenes uses sensor data to ensure their vessels are operating according to requirements. In addition, the company's hull cleaning procedure involves transporting imagery and videos from ship to shore, applying analytics to the data to make informed decisions.
Tommy Akre, Senior Manager – KSM IT, explains:
– Our vessels are combination carriers, which means we convert them from carrying wet cargo into carrying dry bulk cargo on the leg back to where they came from. Compliance for accepting a new cargo onboard requires us to document that the hulls have been properly cleaned. For this purpose, we use cameras that take high-resolution images. This enables us to go back into any port and take new cargo.
However, for many shipping companies, getting vessel data safely and efficiently ashore is a significant technological challenge in difficult bandwidth conditions. That was also the case for Klaveness.
They faced two particular challenges, according to Akre:
– There is always a struggle with bandwidth onboard the vessels. So we needed a solution that was adapted to the maritime business. The second challenge is manual processes. People had to sit by the computer and wait for things to transfer. If it stopped, everything had to be transferred again..
To address these data transport challenges, Klaveness needed a maritime-specific data transfer system.
“We get the best of both worlds: we get the analytics, so we can make better decisions; we can improve our hull cleaning procedures; and we can improve the vessels’ performance, all by utilising the data that Dualog® Drive transports.”
– Tommy Akre, Senior Manager – KSM IT
Many vendors claim their solutions are easy to implement, but in the case of Klaveness and Dualog® Drive, the proof is in the pudding: The company completed the fleet-wide rollout of the new data transfer solution in record-breaking time.
– The entire process was smooth sailing, declares Akre, who coordinated the practical part of the rollout process. He elaborates:
– We were firmly aware of the purpose and criteria prior to testing various data exchange platforms. Dualog personnel assisted us in a carefully planned and well-executed test onshore and onboard. Thanks to the system's simplicity and excellent support from Dualog, Dualog® Drive was completely rolled out to the whole fleet in less than 24 hours!
Read more: Digital spearhead Klaveness rolls out Dualog Data Transfer Solution in 24 hours
Klaveness and Dualog have been collaborating since 2006, when Dualog's class-leading email solution was deployed across the entire fleet. Today, Klaveness uses the Dualog® Drive transfer service on multiple fronts, but primarily for the operations aspect on the commercial side.
– The images and videos we transport from vessel to shore are not only used for analytics but also to ensure that we are compliant with contracts and regulations, says Akre.
Klaveness Combination Carriers has recently been using Dualog® Drive in conjunction with Shipshave's semi-autonomous hull cleaning solution. Shipshave ITCH (In-Transit Cleaning of Hulls) performs hull cleaning while the vessel is sailing, to prevent the early-stage growth of hull fouling.
By utilising Shipshave's innovative solution, Klaveness is reducing CO₂ emissions and improving the sustainability of the business by reducing the marine growth on the underwater hull of vessels.
The ITCH solution consists of a robot tethered to a winch on the forecastle deck. It has an integrated video camera that can be used to document the robot’s cleaning performance.
Here's where Dualog® Drive comes in, says Akre:
– The hull cleaning robot takes pictures and videos, and we use Dualog® Drive to send this data ashore as well as directly to Shipshave for advanced analytics.
Dualog® Drive has been instrumental for Klaveness to streamline and optimise their ship-shore data transport. The Dualog solution provides a crucial link between data generated onboard vessels and shore-based teams who are charged with managing Klaveness’ vessels efficiently and effectively.
Using data-driven insights allows operations teams ashore to make better operational decisions while shipboard team members can communicate more effectively with shore-based functions and operate the vessel more effectively.
Tommy Akre is clear about the value Dualog® Drive brings to the company as they strive to become a safer, greener and data-smart business:
– We get the best of both worlds: We get the analytics, so we can make better decisions; we can improve our hull cleaning procedures; and we can improve the vessels’ performance, all by utilising the data that Dualog® Drive transports.
To learn more about Klaveness and the services the company offers, visit their website.
Rune Larsen is Product Marketing Manager in Dualog. Educated in business strategy and marketing from the Arctic University of Norway, he has more than 25 years of experience in the creative industry, where he worked as a writer, consultant, graphic designer, and creative director in various advertising agencies and design studios. He's been orchestrating brand identity projects, design work and brand-building campaigns for a wide range of organisations. He brings a passion for great design to the team, never compromising on the importance of the 'experience' part of UX. When not at the office, he enjoys hiking with his wife or is busy being a football coach for his youngest daughter. His fitness regime involves either running or cross-country skiing. Rune is an avid reader of business-related books, and he loves the occasional bottle of Barolo.
