AWT Weather Routing/Routeing: Applied Weather Technology

Weather Routing Return on Investment - Consistent Value in an Uncertain Market

By John Eaton

It is widely known within the shipping industry that using weather routing services to assist vessels along trans-ocean voyages can save time and fuel. The overall perception of value derived from ship routing, however, has largely been viewed as ambiguous, anecdotal, and even unproven to some.

In an effort to change this perception, AWT has taken a proactive approach to analyzing the routing services provided throughout the year by providing detailed return on investment reports. This is done by using a unique database of seasonal baseline routes and comparing them against AWT's recommendation or Masters intended route to produce a transparent summary of time, bunkers and greenhouse gas emission savings. These reports, presented to many large and prominent shipping companies on a monthly and quarterly basis, serve as frequent reminder to the remarkable value AWT provides. Savings are displayed in bottom line figures that ship operators can use and integrate directly into their overall fleet management.

With the price of bunker prices once again rising--and predicted to remain a large stress to the profit margin of operating a ship over the coming years--it is easy to see how the savings from even a few tons of bunker fuel or couple of steaming hours can extrapolate into substantial savings to the voyage operators bottom line. These savings should act to highlight the low upfront cost of weather routing.

The following images are from a recent route from Japan to the U.S. West coast. The vessel was safely and economically routed by AWT away from recurving typhoon Nida in the Western Pacific. The first image shows a full comparison with actual route in red, and comparison route in blue.

If the vessel had continued to sail along a direct route without being diverted or adjusting its speed, direct interaction with the typhoon would have occurred as seen in the second image noting actual vessel position just east of Hokkaido, Japan, while the simulated voyage position along the direct Rhumb Line route situated very close to the typhoon center.

After being safely guided north of the typhoon, the vessel was well-positioned to resume a direct route across the North Pacific under mainly following and moderate conditions, thus minimizing its remaining time and fuel to arrival.

This voyage was included in a recent ROI report for a well known European shipping company that, when measured against the invoiced cost for routing, produced a rate of return of 4,190%! Additional value for preserving the safety of the vessel and its cargo should also be taken into full consideration, especially in the above example, but these figures tend to be more abstract but nonetheless important in the high value equation of weather routing.