As 2020 draws to a close and the impact of Covid-19 continues to put a damper on demand for virtually all of shipping, it has become increasingly clear — if it had not been before — that financial strength and resilience are absolutely essential to succeeding in this business.
This is something we have been focusing on for some time, for this very reason: a year for which we all had high hopes can be unexpectedly dashed to pieces. But it is equally important to maintain upside, because the opposite happens just as often: that’s shipping.
After a year like no other, TradeWinds asked 40 shipping industry stakeholders what they see for 2021 after a year beset by the coronavirus, and how the pandemic will shape shipping's future.
Looking into 2021, we would expect a return to more normal market conditions driven by the anticipated global recovery, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Once we can see past the pandemic, many will be surprised that the energy transition has, if anything, continued to accelerate just beneath the surface. Emissions regulations are under lively debate and some are set to come into effect in the relatively near future, possibly marginalising a significant portion of the world fleet sooner than any of us think.
Even after those regulations have come into effect, there is much more change still to come in the form of future fuels and ship designs — open questions that go a long way towards explaining why shipowners are hesitant to order new vessels now.
While we are fortunate in that the entire Ardmore fleet is sufficiently modern and fuel-efficient to meet the near-term thresholds under discussion, the IMO and various regional governing authorities have made plain their intentions to continue raising environmental standards over time towards the goal of long-term sustainability and a materially reduced carbon footprint for shipping as a whole.
We see this as a great opportunity to not merely react and adapt to the evolving regulations and social pressures, but to proactively seek ways to improve performance and profitability while reducing carbon emissions and contributing to longer-term solutions regarding the ultimate goal of zero-emissions shipping.
So as we look past the pandemic, as hard as that is to do today, we see a bright future in the energy transition for the industry and for Ardmore — but this time let’s all remember the full meaning of “sustainability”, which also includes financial sustainability!
