Fleet Operations Centre Enables Hamburg Süd Up to 7% Bunker Savings

Hamburg Süd says that its new Fleet Operations Center, among other measures, has enabled notable fuel savings within the company's operations.

Hamburg Süd, in a new sustainability report covering the 2014/2015 period, says that its new Fleet Operations Center, which was opened in 2015, has enabled some of the ships in its fleet to achieve a 7 percent fuel savings in 2015, compared to the previous year.

"By 2016, the Fleet Operations Center will support 23 out of 39 liner services. The first results are promising: Comparative figures for the period from February to December 2015 show fuel economies of 3 percent compared to the previous year," explained Hamburg Süd.

"Looking at individual services in detail, this positive effect is even more marked – on the Atlantic crossing from Santos (Brazil) to Tangier (Morocco), for example, the ships supported by the Fleet Operations Center needed 7 percent less fuel than in 2014."

Hamburg Süd says slow steaming is another bunker-saving measure that it uses, noting that all of its vessels now sail at 16 to 18 knots.

The company says that through decreasing the speed of its "Santa" class vessels from 20 to 16 knots, a fuel savings of as much as 40 percent, or about 45 tonnes per day for each ship, has been achieved.

CO2 Emissions Reductions

Hamburg Süd says it made "significant progress" during the reporting period in terms of CO2 emissions reductions, having achieved a 35 percent reduction compared to its base year of 2009, and moving closer to its voluntary goal of lowering CO2 emissions by 45 percent by the year 2020.

The company says that use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as bunkers stands to play an important role in more environmentally friendly operations, adding: "in the medium-term, alternative fuels can help to further reduce the emissions from seagoing ships."

Hamburg Süd, noting that it "has been looking into the possibility of LNG supply for its ships for several years now," says that for LNG to achieve widespread adoption, "the necessary infrastructure first needs to be created, above all at the ports."

Pollution Prevention

Also in the report, Hamburg Süd says it has also prioritised areas of water pollution and protection of endangered species, noting that it has taken steps to prevent oil and lubricant spills by its fleet.

"The only exception was a minor incident in Natal (Brazil) in 2014, when around 10 liters of hydraulic oil spilled into the harbor basin" explained the company.

"Another incident that occurred in 2015, in Rotterdam was not caused by a Hamburg Süd ship, but by a bunker barge: after bunkering, less than 25 liters of fuel leaked when pulling in the hose."

In March, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) launched what it calls a Roadmap, a set of key milestones and priorities which must be met in order to create a sustainable shipping industry by 2040.