BargePlanner: Revealing Bunker Market Specifics

Christian Plum, CEO, BunkerMetric. Image Credit / S&B

Marine tech is the flavour of the month and, as with any new thing, it is full of promise. But at the nuts and bolts end of the bunker business, a promise must be proven to be useful because at the end of the working day, firms want to come out on top rather than be out of pocket.

Christian Plum, CEO of the Danish marine tech start up BunkerMetric, reckons that his BargeTracker software can deliver for the physical bunker supplier for that very reason as it is an innovative way of doing barging more efficiently.

BargeTracker collects all the available information on barge movements so whoever is looking at it will have a clear view of the fundamentals of that particular market.

"With BargeTracker, the user knows which barges are servicing which ships, how long the stem takes and where the loading is being done. It's pretty comprehensive," Plum told Ship & Bunker.

Suppliers can build up a picture of what the market is doing and then respond accordingly by adjusting their strategy, he added.

In a way, the software is mirroring what brokers and traders have always done – using their market knowledge in the hope of making a healthy margin – only with BargeTracker, the transparency is total.

"BargeTracker gives you the specifics of a situation and allows you to act," Plum explained.

For example, knowing waiting times in a tight market could see a player steal a march on a competitor by offering the best delivery terms while using barging resources more efficiently could knock cents off the barge cost element of a bunker stem.

"Both are possible," Plum said.

BargeTracker addresses the supply side of the equation while BunkerMetric's BunkerPlanner addresses the demand side. Both services form BunkerMetric's core offer to the bunker industry.

In common with most start ups, the company has yet to make a profit although its turnover shows healthy growth. The challenge for Plum and his small team is to keep their investors onside to allow the firm to get to a place where it can make a profit.  And the signs on that score are positive, he said.

According to Plum, BargeTracker is generating a lot of interest since launch both from smaller players who are not in a position to produce data at that level to bigger concerns, such as port authorities, that can see the advantage of keeping a precise tab on port operations.

"There is so much information out there, it's like finding a needle in the haystack. But that's exactly what we've been able to do with BargeTracker – find that needle."

And if a firm can adapt that insight to the way it does business, it may well find that it is a promise kept.