Nor-Shipping likes to think of itself as the maritime event in the calendar that addresses the future of our industry, and visitors to this year’s event will, no doubt, face a barrage of tech pronouncements on how ships will transform in the coming decade.
We’ve been busy this month compiling a magazine you can pick up at Nor-Shipping identifying how ships will operate and look like in 2035. In doing this, we wanted to seek the views of owners, operators, charterers, managers, specialist service providers, and, most importantly seafarers.
Too often the gizmos and hardware being installed on ships do not seek enough input and feedback from the folk who are actually going to have to use them. If you design in isolation, you create cost, resistance, and risk. I reckon future platform companies will differentiate themselves by embedding operational feedback loops — including from crew — into design.
We polled our readership on a huge range of topics to gauge opinion on how dramatically different ships coming out of shipyards in 10 years’ time will look like. The results? Readers seem to think the exteriors of 2035 newbuilds will look mighty similar to today. Yes, there might be some large fuel tanks on deck, and some form of wind propulsion, but overall ships are not set for a massive change in terms of overall shape. It is inside the vessel where everything is ready for a huge shake-up.
Our own conclusion? Ships of the future will still cross oceans—but they’ll do it with some sails, and lots of sensors and software.
Contents
Front page: What a deal with Iran would mean for the tanker trades
Editor’s Comment: How ships will change over the coming decade
May 2025 Review
Markets Tankers
Markets Dry Bulk
Markets Containers
Analyst Abstract
Monthly Broker
Feature: Are shipyards doing enough to transform shipping?
Interview: Alex Albertini
Data
Opinion: Learn from the past to make a brighter future
Energy News Beat