by Przemysław Myszka
I hope you all have had a strong start to the new year (certainly, our shipping readers had one with the FuelEU Maritime Regulation entering into force...).
While we don't have a crystal ball to predict what 2025 will bring about, the year's opening issue traditionally rounds up the transport & logistics highlights from across the past 12 months.
This time around, wind came to the fore (though at some point, it was hit by a powerful headwind in Sweden...), with the port industry gearing more & more actively to cater to the needs of the wind-energy-harvesting sector.
There was also a not insignificant number of developments on the future fuels front, likewise in the area of electrifying operations (most notably trucking, but the Baltic welcomed a few additional onshore power supply facilities in the region's seaports, too).
Several parties also tied the various knots by striking partnerships to establish green shipping corridors, an advancement that earned them a separate section in the Report this time; well done!
The Baltic is also progressing with carbon capture - on- & offshore (and here, the Technology column hosts a read on how to develop an onboard carbon capture system, which, besides its high efficiency, also delivers a sellable end product for the circular economy).
The past year also resulted in several 'conventional' developments in ports, like new quays, and in shipping (newbuilds, especially for Swedish owners-operators).
Other than that, the 1/25 issue is laden with reads that focus, from different angles, on seafarers' health, physical and mental alike. The advancements here are made possible thanks to modern technology, from artificial intelligence that can spot whether somebody's well-being may be at risk, through Virtual Agronomists helping grow those wholesome veggies right on board ships, to a new digital platform designed to support people at sea on multiple fronts, professional and social among others. In a world awash with tech that wants nothing but to capitalise on us, it's genuinely refreshing to see solutions that got the backs of people doing really, really hard work.
The remaining articles touch upon more than up-to-date topics, including lithium-ion battery fires aboard vessels, how to green your seaport (particularly if you're a smaller one) as well as getting hold of actual emissions data, cyber security, taking care of equipment's safety (you know, 'before' it breaks!), and, of course, developing and testing a robotic application for handling container railway wagon pins. Finally, yet equally important, we're welcoming a new organisation tasked with bringing ports to the next level, the International Association for Port Development.
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