Pressure is mounting on the shipping industry to improve design and technology to meet new environmental regulations and catch up with the gathering pace of digitalisation in the wider business world.

When TradeWinds asked leading experts from classification societies to name shipping’s most likely technology of tomorrow, nearly all cited digitalisation, big data or automation.

Shipping executives could view ships as data centric assets in the future as concepts such as remote monitoring, digital twins, integrated navigation systems and automation make inroads into shipping operations.