Martinos company Signal Maritime will set up an aframax pool in September that will lay the groundwork for a ‘virtual’ pool operating on a new digital, multi-tasking chartering platform its chief unveiled on Wednesday.
“This will help you focus on money-making opportunities while avoid all the boring stuff,” Signal head Ioannis Martinos said during a presentation held during Posidonia in front of hundreds of top players such as Petros Pappas, George Procopiou, Thanassis Martinos and Harry Vafias.
Signal Ocean Platform, the new digital product Martinos has created, will consolidate, process and order information from e-mails, broker reports as well as several channels of ship and port data using "narrow" artificial intelligence.
It will allow users, among other things, to calculate freight rates and spot chartering opportunities on a user-friendly website and mobile app.
Martinos entered shipping after engineering studied at Tufts in the United States. His new venture is one of the most characteristic examples of a trend among tech-savvy young Greeks to launch new digital ventures for shipping.
The new pool will initially have five ships, with two more due under commercial management, and with the aim of 10 to 12 by the end of this year.
Martinos aims to fully integrate the Signal Ocean Platform behind the pool by next summer to create what he calls a virtual pool.
Owners will be able to enter and exit ships more quickly than any traditional pooling arrangement can handle, due to the platform’s ability to judge market value more precisely.
Martinos believes the concept could have far wider application across other sectors.
The Signal Ocean Platform is currently in beta testing with a number of owners and can handle VLCCs, suezmaxes and aframaxes. Capesizes to panamaxes are to follow by the end of the year.
“We will try to get clean product tankers in the first quarter of 2019,” Martinos said.
