EDITION 15

We are thrilled to announce that our internally developed Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard has consistently provided us with valuable insights for nearly 2 years.

This dashboard, developed in collaboration with Ilionx, is our first and is based on data from our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Shipnet. This system integrates business activities such as fleet control operations, compliance, and profitability. Additionally, operations data is supplemented by our external Technical Manager -Fleet Management Hong Kong.

Welcome page of Chemship’s BI dashboard

When we reflect on the process of structuring the dashboard, we have tackled numerous challenges in determining which data to use and ensuring that all initiatives have been considered. Initially, we learned by doing and applied the Application Programming Interface (API) license to all software. The API allowed us to utilise internal and external systems to exchange data, features, and functionality. Subsequently, we scheduled daily stand-up meetings and established a feedback channel to gather needs and optimise the created dashboards. With valuable input from all parties, we successfully built a near real-time dashboard.

Today, I am excited to share a preview of our dashboard, which includes over 60 slides and covers nearly all business activities that are used on a daily or weekly basis.

Our welcome page shows all modules, each corresponding to a part of our organisational structure. Our management team periodically monitors the Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) report, while the operations department oversees fleet emissions based on voyages and charterers. The chartering desk carefully analyses the commercial aspects of our business activities. Meanwhile, the Finance department intuitively reviews our financial figures, and the Marine Services team has convenient access to matters concerning invoicing. This multifaceted dashboard is practical and applicable to the daily activities of all colleagues.

Chemship operates a fleet of 15 chemical tankers, each with a capacity of approximately 12,000 to 16,000 deadweight tonnage. The company transports cargo between Europe, the Mediterranean, and the United States for over a hundred customers, including Shell, Total, and BASF.

The BI dashboard calculates and displays near-real-time emissions for each voyage, charter, and period based on data from voyages. This data encompasses time spent, cargo details, port legs, bunker consumption, and trade lanes.

Since January 2024, the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has been extended to cover CO2 emissions from all large ships (5,000 gross tonnage and above) entering EU ports. Consequently, we have integrated EU ETS ports into our ERP system, allowing us to extract EU ETS emissions easily and accurately from all perspectives. This has been one of our significant achievements, especially given our involvement in the parcel tankers business. We often transport cargo for up to eight customers on a single voyage, with cargoes loaded and unloaded at various ports. Additionally, we need to account for heating cargoes, tanker cleaning, and boiler consumption, which presents quite a complex challenge.

The BI dashboards have encouraged us to standardize our processes for updating customers about emissions and have contributed to managing the EU ETS process. The reports generated by the BI dashboard help us comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regulations, which include accountability for emissions across the entire supply chain. In addition to EU regulations, Chemship must also adhere to regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regarding ship emissions starting in 2026. To address this, we have developed a report for energy labels that provides insights into the current label of each ship and allows for future simulations. The IMO uses the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) or AER, and you can see the 2023 scores for our ships as follows:

Each day, the BI dashboard allows us to monitor whether a ship is approaching the danger zone in terms of emissions. With this information, we can choose an alternative route or adjust the travel plan to stay within the acceptable emission limits set by IMO standards.

Emissions are a crucial topic in discussions with customers and other stakeholders, as emissions in the logistics chain are expected to become increasingly costly. While the ETS system currently applies only in the EU, the USA and the UK are also planning to introduce similar systems. Chemship is fully committed to sustainability, as reflected in our new slogan: “Setting Sail toward Sustainable Shipping.”

Our BI dashboard displays real-time data that reflects our current performance, allowing stakeholders to stay informed about the company’s status at any given moment and make decisions based on up-to-date information.

We focus on TCE dashboards and the Fleet Lifecycle Plan. For the Fleet Lifecycle Plan, you can see below the status for each vessel, including ownership, time charter-in (TC-in), bareboat charter (BB), or time charter-out (TC-out) from last year through 2030.

(Fleet Life Cycle Plan of Chemship)

Regarding chartering reporting, we spent time brainstorming how to select the right key performance indicators (KPIs). After that, we focused on making the data easy to understand and interpret through visual representations such as charts, graphs, and tables. This approach helps stakeholders quickly identify trends and patterns in the data. Moreover, the BI dashboard provides comparative analysis of the company’s performance over time, against industry benchmarks, competitors, and emission metrics.

Last but not least, I would like to summarize my experience with the BI dashboard. To make the smartest strategic decisions, having the latest data is crucial, and the BI dashboard has made this possible while also freeing me from managing numerous databases. Additionally, its flexibility is noteworthy; it allows us to access and analyse invaluable insights from a variety of devices 24/7, no matter where our colleagues are in the world. The BI dashboard serves as our centralized point of access, presenting information clearly and providing instant insights.

Once again, we extend our heartfelt thanks to our partner, Ilionx, and all our colleagues at Chemship for their valuable contributions.