ShipServ, the world’s leading maritime e-Procurement platform, today announced record breaking figures for the total OPEX spend placed through its platform in January 2019. In January 2019, marine buyers spent $385 million through the ShipServ platform, up 30% from 2018 figures, based on a record 115,000 purchase orders issued in January. Total annualised trade on the platform is forecast at over $4 billion.
The significant growth emphasises the shipping industry’s continued development in embracing digitalisation. It also cements ShipServ’s position as the market leading marine e-Procurement platform in a landmark year in which the company celebrates its 20th anniversary since it was founded in 1999.
ShipServ now has over 260 shipowners and managers, representing 10,000 vessels, connected to the ShipServ platform. The significant increase from last year has come from 13 new full integrations, including CPO Containerschiffreederei, Latsco Shipping (formerly CMM), Golar LNG, BOA Management and Patriot Contract Services, signing on in 2018. The remainder of the increase has come from ShipServ’s BuyerConnect solution.
BuyerConnect was launched to enable suppliers to benefit from their connection with ShipServ, even with buyers who are not fully integrated on the platform. This solution has created significant interest.
In 2018, the total number of transactions placed through the ShipServ platform also hit a record high of 7.9 million. The number of suppliers who have a listing on ShipServ Pages now stands at 73,000, all benefitting from the opportunity to gain exposure on the world’s largest marine search engine. In addition, they all can trade through the ShipServ platform increasing transaction efficiencies and winning more business through faster turnaround times in responding to RFQs. Suppliers can trade for free or take advantage of a range of paid solutions.
Following the extension of its partnership with IMPA in 2018, which saw ShipServ using IMPA’s Marine Stores Guide (MSG) codes through its platforms and search engines, the number of searches conducted on ShipServ Pages reached over 4 million. The additional MSG information provides users with increased functionality, including the ability to conduct single code and description look ups, as well as being able to see the code hierarchy. Buyers also benefit from being able to see which suppliers can provide products for the codes being searched.
Commenting on the record results, Kim Skaarup, CEO, ShipServ, said: “The record growth of buyers and suppliers using the ShipServ platform reflects the on-going digital transformation of the shipping industry. Ship operators are seeing the commercial value of using technology to increase efficiencies and reduce costs, which is more important now than ever before as we head into 2020, where operating costs will increase on the back of the global sulphur cap. And suppliers to the industry also recognise the brand and business opportunities of trading in a digital environment. While the digitalisation of the industry is often seen through a futuristic lens, e-Procurement is one of the most viable first steps of that digital journey that both buyers and suppliers can benefit from right now.”
