Our international shipping consulting team helps shipping lines and port operators take on new and longtime challenges to emerge leaner, cleaner, and more profitable.
The perfect storm that has been buffeting the shipping industry—overcapacity, consolidation, stagnating revenues, and declining profitability—is intensifying. Today’s new reality has ratcheted up the existing threats:
To ensure their long-term survival, shipping companies must undertake a transformation that digitizes business and fleet operations and prioritizes climate action. Working in partnership with our shipping consultants, they can devise new offerings and new ways of working within and along the transportation and logistics value chain to gain efficiencies, reduce emissions, save costs, and serve new markets and customers.
Shipping Benchmark Initiative
This initiative provides an easy way for shipping companies to compare their costs and performance with competitors across the industry. It uses data from more than 3,000 of the world’s commercial vessels to help companies improve their competitiveness, learn best practices, keep up with the latest industry trends, and educate stakeholders about the value they provide.
Container Demand and Supply Forecaster
Our forecaster enables the shipping industry to analyze global trends for 9 major trade lanes, 64 shipping routes, 11 regions, and 13 commodities. Use the tool’s comprehensive data and rigorous analysis to model future scenarios and explore the potential impact on the global container market.
Container xChange
This digital marketplace, originally built by BCG and now operating as an independent company, matches empty containers with demand for the space. The tool helps clients reduce their costs and carbon footprints and gain efficiency.
Transportation and Logistics Market Insight Tool
Our tool provides decision makers in the shipping logistics industry with a powerful cockpit for steering operational choices. The tool compiles data on 7 industries, 25 market segments and subsegments, and 31 financial KPIs. Get a complete picture of the industry and forecast trends and assess your company’s relative performance.
BCG Platinion
Companies in the shipping industry collaborate with our specialty business BCG Platinion to perfect the tech side of transformation. We assist with IT architecture design, digital transformation, risk management services, cybersecurity, and implementation management.
BCG Digital Ventures
Our investment and incubation specialty business, BCG Digital Ventures, aids companies in inventing, launching, scaling, and investing in startups. With our help, clients learn how to remain relevant in the age of new technology by acting like venture capitalists.
Our shipping strategy team helps shipping companies and ports transform their organizations to reduce emissions, win on new sustainability metrics, and thrive in this new environment.
Developing Sustainable Fuel Production with a Denmark Collaborative. We have joined forces with several Danish transportation and logistics companies, the Danish government, and Danish-based engineering consulting firm COWI in a partnership to develop a new hydrogen and e-fuel production facility in Copenhagen. The facility could deliver more than 250,000 tons of sustainable fuel for buses, trucks, maritime vessels, and airplanes every year.
Building a Predictive Maintenance Capability with a Large International Shipping Company. By installing monitoring sensors in its control systems and engine rooms, the company boosted the reliability of its fleet and cut maintenance costs.
Turning Around a Container Shipper. A container company had consistently been among the least profitable in the industry. We helped implement a transformation program, optimize trade coverage, redesign the sales organization, and identify significant cost-cutting opportunities. By the second year of the effort, the company’s earnings before interest and taxes had risen above the market average.
