InfinityMAX - the future of efficient vessel design
March 2021

Today, I wanted to take some time to explore some of the reasoning behind our InfinityMAX concept vessel design that we unveiled earlier this month. At Stena Bulk we’re all extremely proud and excited at the level of interest this design has generated across the industry. It’s been fantastic to read all of your thoughts and comments and engage with many of you directly to discuss our vision for the future of efficient vessel design.

Our InfinityMAX concept has been designed with several core principles in mind that we believe represent a paradigm shift in cargo transportation. Much focus has been placed on the green credentials of this vessel design – which we are very proud of – but we are also extremely proud of how it pushes the boundaries for dry and wet cargo movement.

We believe that by the end of this decade, the technology will exist to support the creation of standardised and modular cargo units that can carry dry bulk, liquid bulk or liquified gas products such as methane, hydrogen and ammonia. In effect, our concept would rationalise dry and liquid bulk trades, driving dramatically improved world fleet utilisation and the potential for even more standardised supply chains.

We think that this could be as exciting as containerisation was for intermodal freight transport. And we hope that you share in this excitement with us.

Meanwhile, we have also packed this concept full of technologies that we believe will exist at scale to enable zero emissions shipping. The InfinityMAX concept will burn hydrogen as a marine fuel, will use wind turbines and other sources to generate further energy.

Why have we created this concept now? This is a good question and one that we feel well placed to answer. The InfinityMAX design has been created as part of our response to the huge challenges that the global shipping industry must overcome in the coming decades.

We recognise that the timeframes here seem far away but are actually relatively close in technological terms. We think the future requires a vessel design that is up to the challenge of a gradual reformed global economy.

The speed at which shipping and society must manage the energy transition leaves no time for waiting to see what others do. We think it is important to take every action necessary to reach that vision.

Stena Bulk is constantly pushing sustainability boundaries in order to innovate and champion multiple pathways, understanding that some of them will not reach full market fruition. We think that doing this is progressive and commercially sensible against the backdrop of  changing maritime sector – and that they will drive further commercial success in the future.

I also want to underline that we believe that collaboration will be vital to making designs like InfinityMAX a reality. The initial strong reception to this concept shows us how much it has fired up our colleagues and partners from all corners of this and other global industries.

We look forward to working with you all on making InfinityMAX a reality, in a not too distant future, and also look forward to sharing more about our approach to decarbonisation in the coming days and weeks.

 

Gothenburg, March 2021
Erik Hånell, President & CEO at Stena Bulk