Seaber.io
Ghostwriting / Freelancing
1. Marketing challenge
Seaber is a 4-year-old B2B SaaS startup in the maritime industry, based in Finland.
Marketing hasn’t been the company’s strong suit. However, the CEO wanted to change that.
2. Solution
I suggested Sebastian (CEO) to spend more effort on LinkedIn because it is the ‘go-to’ channel when it comes to marketing to businesses.
3. Results
I became a ghostwriter for Sebastian’s LinkedIn profile.
The industry was heavily technical and old, but I navigated through it by myself with lots of academic papers and research.
I also suggested improvements on other Marketing aspects such as SEO and revamping the website for better conversion.
Posts
“Bulk and tanker shipping decisions have historically been based on judgment and experience, lagging behind in using data analytics compared to other various industries. A change will require a significant investment, but those companies that leverage new data sources and cutting-edge analytics techniques will be well-positioned and resilient in the post-crisis world.
These data-driven insights can give companies an edge over competitors, and enhance decision-making in many innovative ways.
Here are a few actionable steps you can take to utilize data to your advantage and directly improve your bulk and tanker shipping decisions:
Analyzing competitor ship positioning: Vessel movements are now transparent thanks to the automatic identification system (AIS). With this data, companies can use algorithms to analyze competitors’ loads and customers, and their deployment for faster and better commercial decisions. Competitor vessel information can be employed, for example, to develop hypotheses on vessel utilization and therefore cost position; such intelligence can be used for commercial negotiations.
Finding cargo in spot markets using algorithmic prediction: By using a series of indicators (including key economic, trade-related, industrial, and retail metrics), companies can find promising short-term cargo by forecasting commodities with predictable freight volume and rate increases. Historical data can also be used with advanced models to identify routes and regions, allowing ships to choose locations likely to offer appropriately timed opportunities with maximum returns.
Monitoring moves in the value chain using satellite or drone pictures: The progress of maintenance in oil fields or refineries can be tracked by using satellite and image analysis software. One method could be totaling the number of maintenance machines operating on the site. Companies can utilize this insight to monitor their upstream market and predict capacity needs, for instance.
Despite its long history (over 5000 years old), the sea shipping industry is often perceived as being behind in technology regardless of today’s digital world. Nevertheless, Some industry leaders are starting to utilize data analytics for making more informed decisions.
We at Seaber are ready to be your next partner on the path to the digitalization of bulk and tanker shipping. With Seaber, there are numerous data-analytic tools and indicators at your disposal for the most informed and insightful planning decisions.”
The EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050 – an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
To help achieve the goal, zero-emission fuel and vessels need to be deployed in the next decade.
However, the cost of running vessels using green fuels is significantly more expensive than conventional fuel. The chart below demonstrates the total cost of ownership (TCO) per iron-ore bulk carrier (million $) as provided by McKinsey&Company.
Despite the challenges, Seaber identifies its role in helping shipowners and charterers achieve their goals.
We can help lower vessel operational cost, increase TCE and overall revenue is through schedule optimisation. With an optimised schedule for your fleet, it’s possible to increase vessels utilisation, avoid ballast voyages and demurrage costs, and reduce overall emissions.
Especially if your vessels running on green fuels, an optimised route planning for your fleet is a must.
“Some companies do their vessel planning manually on the wall-mounted boards. People would work on it together in the office.
However, Covid pushed them to collaborate online and used Excel instead.
As everyone’s going back to the office, the physical boards are used again for vessel scheduling. Excel has helped but it’s failed in some ways and hence not the preferred method.
Nevertheless, wall-mounted board isn’t the best way to schedule shipment. It doesn’t scale as well, and information isn’t updated in real time when there’s a variable changed. How is your TCE affected when there’re changes in parcels or ports?
Seaber is a superior solution for schedule optimisation compared to physical boards and excel. There are powerful features and benefits for a holistic view of monthly and annual planning. Information is up-to-date and every stakeholder is informed.
Better planning with Seaber means reduced operation costs, higher vessel utilisation, better communication, higher revenue, and reduced emissions.”
“It’s interesting to see how the sea shipping industry has been transforming in the last decades.
Sea shipping is an old industry. But the tech is not too advanced and many processes are still done manually. Especially, excel is often used for vessel planning.
I expect more useful technology and tools to be applied in the future – sea shipping will be more digitalised.
On that trend, Seaber plays an important role in planning and optimising schedule for bulk, breakbulk, and tanker shipments. Data can be monitored and analysed for more efficient operation, reduced costs and improved TCE.”
“Your fleet operational efficiency can be improved by planning your COA cargoes and fixed spot cargoes in the most cost-efficient way
With Seaber, you’ll be able to:
View different cost scenarios with an automatic feature that considers bunker, port, and channel costs
Select the most profitable voyages taking into account all the costs, durations, and restrictions.
Increase profitability through optimization tools that propose changes to different scenarios.
Keep the schedule up to date through an automatic schedule update feature based on the latest ETA/ETD.
Seaber can provide you with valuable information, however, you’re in the driver’s seat and makes the final decision for each voyage.
The full blog post on the subject by Arto is in the comment!”
“One way to achieve a higher fleet efficiency is by identifying and bidding for the spot cargoes that best fit your current schedule plan. As suggested by Arto, our amazing head of product.
In that process, Seaber allows you to:
✔️ Play around with potential cargoes as a part of the scenario tools we provide.
✔️ Make scenarios of ‘average cost per ton mile’ comparisons
✔️Avoid inevitable long-haul ballast voyages with an automatic up-to-date regional balance count of cumulative open positions
A full version of the 10 steps process and how Seaber can help you is in the link in the comment.”
Planning schedules for your ships isn’t an easy task. But it can help improve TCE for your fleet.
Following are the 3 ways to schedule your cargoes on a high level ⤵️
Build your schedule manually and then seek the biggest yielding parcel or voyage level swaps/changes to improve fleet TCE
Build the schedule through a semi assisted process. Next is to combine highest TCE voyages with biggest yielding parcel or voyage level swaps/changes to further improve fleet TCE
Plan the entire schedule using auto-plan function based on certain criteria and then adjust manually.
Regardless of the method, it’s advised to create different scenarios for comparisons. For meaningful results, you need to quantify the schedule risk, and then take that into account in the form of comparison KPIs.
“Seaber allows you to create scenarios in all 3 methods. It’s easy to plan your vessels and visually identify the best schedules for your fleet.
This is based on the blog post written by our VP of product Arto Viitanen. More details below!”
“What is shipping optimization?” – Long form article