In 2023, the shipping industry takes its first steps toward decarbonizing its existing fleet of ships through mandatory year-on-year improvements in their fuel efficiency. The industry’s preferred method to achieve net zero, however, is by the introduction of a global carbon levy on bunker fuels of up to $300 per tonne. This is supposed to incentivize carriers to switch to cleaner, lower-taxed alternatives. But in an industry renowned for passing on its incremental costs to customers, many shippers will be expecting a repeat of the blizzard of surcharges they were presented with when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) made low-sulphur fuel compulsory in 2020. So, question 1 for 2023 is “how can we make sure that any carbon levy doesn’t just become the ‘mother of all BAFs’, and carriers carry on burning conventional fuels at their customers’ expense?”
The year will also see the emergence of more online booking platforms offering tracking and cargo management functionality impossible with paper shipping documents. But with digitalization of the industry comes heightened risks of loss, theft, and unauthorized exploitation of the commercially sensitive data routinely committed to bills of lading, shipping notes, etc. Question 2 for 2023 is “how can we be assured that our data is safe, its ownership respected and that if its lost, hacked or abused, we will be told?”
Finally, the aspirations of several shipping lines to become full-service logistics providers will also be achieved or advanced during 2023. But with increased responsibility for more of the supply chain comes the unavoidable accountability for service performance and cost control, especially when things go wrong. Given what has happened to shipping costs and service performance over the past three years, a third question shippers will be asking in 2023 is “what share of the risks and costs of disruption are wannabe door-to-door service providers really prepared to take on and be held to in order to win my business?”