Slow steaming

[1] In 2010, an analyst at the National Ports and Waterways Institute stated that nearly all global shipping lines were using slow steaming to save money on fuel.

Maersk's Triple E-class container ships were designed for slow steaming and have less powerful engines than their predecessors.

[13][14] Ma Shuo, a professor of maritime economics and policy at World Maritime University (WMU) in Sweden, has undertaken research to assess the relationship between freight rates and optimal speed, confirming that as freight rates rise with market conditions, so does the economically optimal speed.

The initiative to balance cost, duration, emissions and risk is supported by the EC-funded research project SYNCHRO-NET.

The International Maritime Organization's GloMEEP project, aimed at supporting energy efficiency measures for shipping, has also studied this subject, and refers to just-in-time operation.

Ship control systems have to be more sophisticated, and multi-objective optimization techniques are needed which can respond to changing conditions (e.g. weather, sea state, port status).