This Bloomberg article from two days ago talks about Amazon and Google not being part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average despite massive market cap and global influence.
It’s interesting from a maritime shipping standpoint because shipping is decidedly an industrial business. A staid, long-term, industrial business.
Shipping is mostly predictable. You have a floating piece of steel operated at sea by trained professionals. Put the cargo on. Drive somewhere. Take the cargo off. It’s not sexy but it keeps the global economy humming.
In the current age of innovation and tech disruption maybe shipping is hungry for something more. Some innovation to call its own.
That could explain the obsession with autonomous ships. The Finns and the Norwegians are so determined to turn ships into robot they are taking the world with them whether the world likes it or not.
Crewing costs account for roughly 3% of total operating costs. Hardly a business case for getting rid of the humans and replacing them with vulnerable, expensive equipment redundant with vulnerable, expensive equipment.
But shipping has to innovate somewhere. Doesn’t it?
In an era where seafarers’ rights are close to the last thing considered in operations, it becomes an innovation to simply care about your crews. Not just to say you care, but to actually give a shit. Innovate there instead of trying to eliminate humans and watch what happens.