Competitiveness of autonomous ship and Norwegian maritime shipping industry
In 2018, the Norwegian fertilizer company ‘YARA’ announced that they are going to build the world’s first fully-electric autonomous container ship with support of the Norwegian government and the cooperation of a few companies from Norwegian maritime industry. This zero-emission autonomous ship would be operational in 2020. This situation has made the Norwegian maritime shipping industry a pioneer.The interest of the maritime shipping industry in the autonomous ship (AS) is caused by the consequences of their intense activities on the environment. Being responsible for almost 90% of the world trade has a negative side. The huge amount of fuel consumption by logistics vessels has caused serious pollution and the future predictions are much worse than the current situation. The maritime shipping industry was looking for a solution that could reduce their negative effect on the environment and give competitive advantages against harsh competition within the shipping industry. It did not take a long time for them to realize the benefits of AS.The aim of this research was to determine the effect of AS on the Norwegian maritime shipping industry by focusing on competitiveness. Until now, the competitiveness of AS was never the main topic for any research. Furthermore, the research was looking for the challenges which AS can experience and the benefits which it can deliver. To be able to do that, this research combined a different kind of research methods such as exploratory, descriptive and explanatory researches. Moreover, the qualitative research design has been chosen for this research because it was the most convenient design to gain an in-depth understanding of AS and gain knowledge about the behaviours of the stakeholders and their shared beliefs about AS. Primary data collection is done by interviewing five key role players within the AS project. Secondary data collection is done by online desk research.The main findings were that AS will deliver competitiveness on three out of four circumstances which Porter (1985) mentioned in his theory ‘Technology and competitive advantages’. Moreover, AS will provide advantages related to cost, safety, environment, social sustainability and most importantly gender equality within the international maritime shipping industry. The gender equality related to AS was also the first time ever mentioned in this research. Furthermore, the most important issues which AS experiences are the trust issues and international law which both have ‘presence of human factor on the ship’ in common. Finally, huge effort of the Norwegian government to become a competitive country is pointed out.Recommendations are made for further research related to trust issues, an especially professional survey which is based on quantitative research design and includes all stakeholder’s opinions related to AS. Besides that, recommended that AS includes proactive measurements for gender equality within its future strategy.
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