To meet the merchant fleet’s need for optimised voyage decision-making, Kongsberg Digital has just launched Vessel Performance Merchant. The application is a tailored application designed for the merchant fleet to enhance fuel efficiency and optimise the overall performance of both the vessel and its crew.

By collecting and contextualising data from the vessel’s onboard sensors, automation systems, and manually reported data through the vessel-to-cloud cloud infrastructure Vessel Insight, the Vessel Performance application has been providing shipowners and crew members with valuable insights and analytics since its launch in 2020.

Offshore and merchant segments have distinct differences in terms of operational profiles and optimisation requirements. As offshore vessels operate on shorter, dynamic voyages and often need to be at a standstill in a single position over time – also known as dynamic positioning – merchant vessels undertake long and stable voyages. Also, a key difference is the planning phase of the voyage; where offshore operations objectives can change within a very short period of time, merchant voyages is normally planned several weeks ahead.

To address the differences in operations and underlying decision-making for the two segments, Kongsberg Digital is launching the ‘Vessel Performance Merchant’ application. This application is specially tailored for long, global-spanning merchant voyages in the maritime merchant segment.

The application will provide merchant vessel’s operators with customisable dashboards that seamlessly integrate with other specialised performance and analytics tools, such as CII and Maritime Digital Twin Trim Optimization, as well as the Application Work Surface. Through this, Vessel Performance Merchant enables crew members and onshore management to make well-informed decisions regarding energy drivers, conduct voyage comparisons, and optimise fuel consumption.

“Merchant shipping companies transport the world’s cargo and shipping, representing long voyages, and depending on the contract, they either follow the same routes repeatedly or work towards the spot market. On the other hand, the offshore segment supports the offshore oil and gas industry with vessels that go out to platforms and perform specific, advanced operations. These different operational profiles drive different needs, again creating different requirements for performance applications. Kongsberg Digital recognises these requirements and is therefore addressing them by launching the Vessel Performance Merchant application”, says Sigrid Johansen, Product Manager at Kongsberg Digital.

Vessel Performance Merchant will be built on the same interface and functionality as the original Vessel Performance application. The application will be available through the marketplace.