soap box What Primary Data Reveal About Industry Trends —Constantine Komodromos Constantine Ko-modromos is a tech entrepreneur advancing sus-tainable logistics. As the CEO and founder of Vessel-Bot, he enables smarter, lower-carbon supply chains by embedding high-velocity, high-veracity primary shipment data into daily operations. Fo-cused on practical innovation, he helps supply chain/logistics and sustainability teams reduce emissions, cut costs, and make informed decisions. T he maritime industry faces un-precedented disruption, from geopolitical tensions to environ-mental and regulatory pressures. In addition to awareness of these shifts, deeper insight lies beyond aggregate historical data typically used by market stakeholders. By analyzing real-time data, vessel behavior, and build characteristics, we can uncover market complexi-ty. This level of awareness enables informed decisions and meaning-ful action across the global supply chain. VesselBot’s continuous mon-itoring of global container shipping operations reveals patterns that challenge conventional assump-tions about maritime environmental performance. By tracking near-real-time operational data from thou-sands of vessels along global trade routes, we’ve identified complex efficiency trends that traditional cal-culation methods consistently miss. The first quarter (Q1) of 2025 presented a complex picture: total greenhouse gas emissions increased by 6.8 percent compared to Q1 of 2024, reaching just below 48 mil-lion tons. At the same time, emis-sions intensity slightly increased to 197.5 g CO 2 e/TEU km from 194.5 in Q1 2024. These changes mostly reflect the impact on energy effi-ciency of rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope. In the second quarter (Q2), emis-sions dropped to 46.8 million tons (4.5 percent below Q2 2024), while the global container fleet expanded by 8 percent and voyage counts de-clined slightly by 0.3 percent. The vessel-level monitoring in our recent report of 72,516 voyages completed by 4,865 different con-tainerships in Q2 2025 reveals per-formance disparities that aggregate data cannot capture. For instance, our analysis iden-tified 943 voyages with extreme-ly high carbon intensity (800+ g CO 2 e/TEU km), representing just 1.3 percent of total voyages but offering crucial insight into opera-tional inefficiencies. These high-in-tensity voyages typically involve smaller vessels (carrying capacity up to 3,000 TEU) with low utili-zation rates carrying limited cargo over shorter distances, highlighting the complex relationship between vessel size, route optimization, and environmental performance. Smaller vessels are extremely flexi-ble since they can call at numerous ports, contributing to the robustness of supply chains. At the same time, they call at smaller ports, with lower volume needs, and therefore tend to have lower utilization rates. More-over, the ports they call at tend to be less efficient as the average time in port (both anchorage and berthing) is 2.52 days compared to 1.6 days for all Q2 voyages. The data also reveal significant age-related efficiency patterns. We tend to think that the younger the vessel, the better it performs. Our analysis indicates that vessels up to 5 years old have the third-best well-to-wake (WTW) intensity at 183 g CO 2 e/TEU km, outranked by both six-to 10-year-old vessels (intensi-ty of 177.4) and 11-to 15-year-old vessels (intensity of 153.5). Vessels up to five years old car-ried on average fewer TEU (3,248); traveled longer distances (2,108 km on average); and at higher speeds (13.8 kt. on average)—all three fac-tors weighing on WTW intensity. www.sea-technology.com Highly efficient 11-to-15-year-old vessels steamed the longest (4.2 days on average); carried more TEU (4,095 on average); and sailed at lower speeds (13.5 kt. on average). VesselBot’s analysis reveals pre-viously unexplored connections between vessel origin and environ-mental performance. Shipbuilding countries specialize in different vessel types and even different siz-es, which significantly affects their WTW intensity. Voyages completed by Chi-nese-built vessels recorded an in-tensity of 191.9 in Q2, while those completed by vessels built in South Korea showed an intensity of only 151.1. The main reason behind that difference is vessel size. In trips completed by vessels built in South Korea, the average TEU carried was 3,952. In trips completed by Chi-nese-built vessels, the average TEU was 2,541. This difference depends less on operating trends and more on shipbuilding fundamentals. South Korea retains the advantage in the construction of large units. Yet, South Korean shipyards might be slowly losing the shipbuilding race in general, with the average age of vessels in voyages complet-ed by ships built in South Korea at 15.3 years, while the corresponding figure for Chinese-built vessels was 12.6 years. In an era shaped by geopolitical shifts, regulatory complexity, and growing environmental urgency, sustainability must become a core factor in logistics decision making. To navigate this evolving landscape, logistics teams need access to re-al-time primary data to drive smart-er maritime operations. From evaluating carrier reliabili-ty and anticipating blank sailings to managing freight costs and tracking emissions intensity, data-driven in-sights are essential for making in-formed, sustainable choices across the supply chain. Learn more at www.vesselbot.com. ST October 2025 | ST 45
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