StormGeo offers comprehensive tools for decarbonization and compliance
StormGeo is a well-respected leader in weather intelligence and advanced data science worldwide. They have been providing leading solutions for offshore wind, shipping, oil and gas, and onshore industries, including utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail for the last 25 years. StormGeo gives their clients a competitive advantage to meet the challenges of a quickly changing global landscape.
On March 7th, 2023, StormGeo announced the launch of a new CII Simulator for Charterers. This simulator is based on the vessel's status before the voyage to ensure charter party (C/P) compliance for CII BIMCO clauses. In September, StormGeo launched an end-to-end bunker management solution that allows users to optimize bunker planning and streamline procurement with full control and complete ownership of their data.
Over the years, StormGeo has established 27 offices in 18 countries to help clients manage risks, optimize performance, reduce costs, and increase revenue.
To celebrate StormGeo's 25th anniversary, Xinde Marine News interviewed Kim Hedegaard Sørensen, Interim CEO of StormGeo. The interview covered StormGeo's journey over the years, products, market in Asia, and plans for the future.
Xinde Marine News: First of all, could you please briefly introduce StormGeo as the industry leader in weather intelligence and ship routing services, highlighting its 25th-anniversary milestone and global presence?
As you correctly point out, StormGeo is the global market leader in weather intelligence and vessel routing. Or rather, we prefer to call it voyage optimization services. Through the combination of our strong technologies (AI and Machine learning included) and the support from our strong onshore domain expertise (meteorologists and navigators), we continue to develop this product, ensuring that shipping companies can reduce their emissions while their vessels, cargoes, and crews remain safe.
We, however, also have other areas where we are industry leaders. This is true for our environmental reporting tools and fleet performance management solutions. Here, we serve +4000 vessels worldwide so that they can live up to new and stricter regulations while we also assist them in reducing their emissions.
Xinde Marine News: This year marks the 25th anniversary of StormGeo. How do you evaluate StormGeo's journey over the past 25 years and notable achievements？
First of all, it has been 25 years of constant growth and development. And we have been fortunate to see profitable growth over the years, which has allowed us to continue reinvesting in better and better products. We have made a number of significant acquisitions over the years, enabling us to become an important player serving the global shipping industry. Over the last few years, I am very happy with our development in Asia, where we have spent significant resources growing our presence here. We have solid local setups in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, and Manila. Soon, we will also open an office in Mumbai. I am specifically happy about the setup in Manila, where our new operations center of +20 experts serves our Asian clients in real-time.
Xinde Marine News: Could you please talk about the plans, goals, and strategic vision for the next few years？Any new initiatives, products, or services that StormGeo plans to introduce to further enhance your offerings?
We have very recently introduced our new integrated end-to-end bunker solution that will allow shipping companies to optimize where they should do their bunker procurement while also facilitating the end-to-end bunker procurement process.
Just a few days ago, we launched our EU ETS solution, which will facilitate EU ETS compliance - a natural follow-up to our very popular environmental reporting tool package, all to be found on our platform s-Insight. We are constantly upgrading our capabilities to invest in and develop new products, and we now have more than 150 software developers in StormGeo, making us able to always serve the shipping industry with the latest tools and technology. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that while we might have the best technology and systems, we strongly believe that high tech is best when it is further supported by strong people behind the systems. This is where our operations centers in Asia, Europe, and the US come into the picture.
Our vision is to be the global leader in voyage optimization and fleet performance management while becoming the go-to company for assisting the global shipping industry in its decarbonization efforts.
We deliver on our vision by constantly investing in further product development, often in direct cooperation with our clients.
Xinde Marine News: We understand that StormGeo has established some offices in Asia. How do you view the Asian market for StormGeo? What are the further plans for exploring the Asian Market, especially the China shipping market?
We have a good presence in Asia, which is constantly growing. That is because we believe in Asia and see a bright future and significant regional growth. We want to be close to our Asian customers, which is why we have a strong focus on setting up even more services here. Recently, we opened our new operations center in Manila, and we now have 25 highly skilled people supporting our Asian clients. Soon, we will open a new office in Mumbai, where we will set up an operations center dedicated to our fleet performance management clients.
In China and Hong Kong, we are strongly represented and expect to further enhance our position here in the future. We have a long-lasting cooperation with many clients here. Furthermore, we cooperate closely with our Chinese clients on product development, and we expect that cooperation to expand in the future.
Xinde Marine News: Recently, StormGeo launched a new tool for voyage optimization solution - Bunker Management. Could you tell us more about Bunker Management and its competitive advantages in terms of safety, time, fuel consumption, and emissions?
Our bunker management tool has received significant interest from the market as it assists our clients in solving some of their critical challenges within bunkering.
First of all, our advanced algorithms will assist our clients in understanding the most cost-effective place to bunker. When that has been handled, the end-to-end bunker management tool will assist in the full procurement process of digitalizing the clients’ bunker procurement. This will give customers complete process documentation, provide a full audit trail, and ensure that the lowest cost/highest quality providers are always used. Additionally, the new tool ensures full data integrity and compliance.
In short, we bring the procurement process away from Excel spread sheets and into the 21st century.
Xinde Marine News: In March, StormGeo launched the CII Simulator for Charterers to ensure that the obligations related to the CII as imposed in the C/Ps are based on best practices and follow the CII BIMCO clauses. We would like to know how is the application effect of this CII solution.
According to the CII Operations Clause for Time Charter Parties by BIMCO, shipowners and charterers require a high degree of trustworthy cooperation to achieve the best CII rating for the vessel based on the complexity of IMO CII regulations. The parties have an agreed CII, and deviations from this agreed CII can have a profound impact on the charter operator's commercial plans.
StormGeo’s solution simulates and optimizes the ship‘s route to assess operational flexibility in terms of ship deployment versus the impact on "warranted" CII defined in CP. The CII Simulator predicts the Carbon Intensity Indicator and rating after the voyage based on the vessel’s status prior to the commencement of the voyage and the required allowances for the upcoming EU ETS scheme proactively.
Xinde Marine News: In the face of the IMO's 2050 GHG net-zero emissions target, how do you view the market changes? How will StormGeo's product s-Suite be optimized?
The requirements for the shipping industry on emissions reduction will be tightened. This will lead to new fuel types, which must meet the sustainability and GHG emission-saving criteria, more efficient ship designs, and vessels being operated at lower service speeds. For existing vessels still running on conventional fuel, we currently see an increase in consumption of biofuel in order to reduce CO2 emissions; this trend will continue and increase. StormGeo’s product s-Suite is continuously developed to provide users with innovative features to optimize voyages and reduce their carbon footprint. The systems and services supporting our clients in staying compliant are constantly developed in alignment with the latest regulatory requirements and updates.
Xinde Marine News: StormGeo has been a part of Alfa Laval since 2021. What are your experiences from the last three years? What benefits do the two sides gain from each other，and what is the future plan of Alfa Laval with StormGeo？
In StormGeo, we are pleased to have a strong and long-term owner in Alfa Laval. Alfa Laval, like StormGeo, is solid in the maritime sector, and there are many synergies between the product portfolios of Alfa Laval and StormGeo. During the three years under Alfa Laval’s ownership, we have experienced strong growth in both revenue and profits. This happened while we invested heavily in product development and launched many new high-quality products.
Xinde Marine News: The weather routing technology of China is still in the development stage. How do you view the prospects of weather routing technology in China? Any advice on that?
We want to share our technology and knowledge with more Chinese clients. We see that the clients we have in China are extremely capable of getting the highest possible return from the usage of our products because of their high local knowledge and expertise in these areas.
Invitation
StormGeo will be exhibiting at Marintec China 2023, located at Stand N3D5A - 06 (Hong Kong Pavilion). They are pleased to offer free consultations for CII and EU ETS in their booth.
Additionally, they will be hosting an offline meeting on December 6th during Marintec, with the theme "How To Manage Your EU ETS Exposure With StormGeo". Please note that this meeting is by invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please contact：
Chris Pang：Chris.Pang@stormgeo.com.
