Torm Joins Inatech for IMO 2020 Bunker App

Danish product tanker operator Torm has joined Glencore subsidiary Inatech on an app to tackle the anticipated complex bunkering landscape in shipping post-2020.

Inatech, which specialises in energy trading risk management systems, has built the ‘Smart Trader’ app to enable companies to map their entire fleet of ships and visualise best routes given sea and port conditions to achieve lowest prices for the desired quality of fuel.

The toolkit leverages bunker alerts and pricing data from S&P Global Platts, the leading independent provider of information and benchmark prices for the energy and commodities markets.

"Torm, the tanker company that’s one of the world’s biggest carriers of refined oil products, worked with Inatech on the app’s design and is among the first clients," said a press release.

"As world shipping braces for a $60 billion hike in the industry-wide fuel bill from 2020, help is on its way in the form of a new toolkit that scours the globe in real-time for the optimal bunker ports," added the release.

The major international shipping companies are investing in technology ahead of the implementation of the International Maritime Organisation’s rules to limit sulphur emissions to 0.5%, from the current ceiling of 3.5%, which come into effect from January 2020. S&P Global Platts Analytics estimates that complying with the IMO’s cap will add $60 billion to fuel costs in 2020.

“Improved technology is vital because the new IMO rules will not only increase costs but could also trigger unprecedented volatility in prices as a widening array of choice between the various fuel oil types skews supply and demand dynamics in what is still a relatively opaque market,” said Inatech CEO Jean-Hervé Jenn. “That motivates our push to broaden the available options for bunker buyers, who will suddenly be immersed in an infinitely more complex market in less than a year’s time.”