Maritime frontrunners join forces and take circular steps to move from pioneering to the norm

During the National Congress on Circular Entrepreneurship, the opening event of the Week of the Circular Economy, Maritime Sisters brought together a group of 15 maritime frontrunners at a special Maritime Action Table. The session, with representatives from across the entire value chain, aimed to place the maritime sector firmly on the circular agenda and to provide input to the new KGG Minister on how the government can help the sector seize its opportunities. In this way, the sector can move from pioneering to becoming the norm.

In the presence of H.M. Queen Máxima and Minister Stientje van Veldhoven, it became clear that the sector is taking responsibility for the materials needed to maintain our strategic shipbuilding capabilities. Activities such as retrofitting and remanufacturing make it possible to use ships and components for longer, reuse them, or upgrade them. As a result, vessels can remain in operation longer while the demand for primary raw materials decreases.

By bringing these parties together, Maritime Sisters created a platform to discuss both opportunities and bottlenecks in scaling up circular solutions within the maritime value chain. The message was clear: do not hold us back, but facilitate us,  for example, by creating space for dismantling and thus the recovery of strategic raw materials and critical materials.

 

Three priorities for a circular maritime sector

During the session, three key priorities emerged to accelerate and scale circular practices within the sector, enabling the transition from pioneering to the norm.

1. Supply chain collaboration

Circular working does not stop with a single party. Supply and demand for reuse must be brought together much more effectively, with insight into which volumes, materials and components will become available and when. This requires collaboration across the value chain, new forms of (reverse) logistics and the willingness to decouple ship hulls and components in order to preserve value as effectively as possible. In doing so, the sector is also willing to look beyond its own boundaries, for example towards the construction sector.

2. Stimulating market demand

Decision-making should more often be based on total cost of ownership (TCO) rather than solely on the purchase price. Shipowners, clients and OEMs play a key role in stimulating demand for remanufactured components, and therefore in enabling scaling. The question is: which incentives are decisive for them?

3. Conditions for scaling up

Scaling requires trust, transparency and clear standards. Certification of reused components, better access to data and initiatives such as materials passports (currently being developed by initiatives including CirclesOfLife) can support this development. Policy measures, such as an eco-label for ships operating in EU waters, can also stimulate circular innovation.

 

From pioneers to the new norm

The sector is ready. The examples are there. The energy is there as well. Frontrunners are already demonstrating that interventions such as remanufacturing and retrofitting reduce pressure on steel and other primary materials, allow ships to operate longer and more sustainably (relevant for the logistics side of the growing circular economy volumes) and keep scarce and critical materials within the value chain.

In doing so, we maintain a sector that not only provides 90% of global goods transport, but also plays a crucial role in society more broadly, from our earning capacity and military security to accelerating the energy transition and keeping our country safe from flooding.

Therefore, both the participants of the Maritime Action Table and Maritime Sisters say: Let’s go!

 

Participants & partners

Participants at the Maritime Action Table included: AEGIR-Marine, Rotterdam Ship Repair & Eerland Ship Repair, Damen, TNO, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, Conoship International, Heerema Marine Contractors, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences / TU Delft, Nederland Maritiem Land, Shipsonic and VLZS.

The session was organised by Maritime Sisters together with Blue Sisters Sabine Biesheuvel and Veerle Voesten.

 

Maritime Circular Multi-Year Programme

This initiative does not stand alone. Maritime Sisters and Sabine Biesheuvel have been working for four years, commissioned by the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Province of South Holland, to unlock circular opportunities in the maritime sector.

The Maritime Action Table at the National Congress on Circular Entrepreneurship builds on this foundation.

 

The core principle remains: Smart use of materials = smart business.