Following a recent business trip to Tokyo, our Founder & CEO, Noah Silberschmidt, reflects on a week full of insights and inspiring conversations with members of the maritime community in Japan.

I always feel energised when I visit this country where tradition and engineering excellence meet craftsmanship and innovation. During my stay, it was a pleasure to speak to Japanese shipowners and find out more about their priorities and how we can help support them. It was useful to connect in person and discuss our shared focus on accelerating maritime decarbonisation whilst navigating an increasingly complex geopolitical and regulatory environment. It has always fascinated me how, despite regional variants, the challenges shared by the shipping industry are so global in nature. One thing happening in one part of the world can have a lasting effect across borders.

Recent global events have demonstrated how geopolitical disruption can rapidly influence fuel costs, operational risk, and investment decisions across global fleets. As a result, the global community is experiencing rapid fluctuations in bunker prices, whilst the cost of alternative fuels is driven up by regulatory pressures. In volatile times like these, it can be hard to decide when to move and what path to take to achieve positive progress. This is where practical energy efficiency technologies (EETs) play a critical role, not as a future concept, but as a proven way to manage operational and commercial risk in the present.

During my trip, I had the opportunity to share insights into the latest trends in EET adoption and the strategic importance of the Japanese market, in a room full of journalists. Japan remains a major automotive export economy and a leading shipping nation. This presents a favourable backdrop for technologies that reduce fuel use and climate impact without requiring customers to wait for a perfect future-fuel ecosystem.

I was very impressed by the questions I received from the journalists. Their strong interest signalled that the time is right for us to be talking about air lubrication to future-proof fleets. The discussion also focused on the PCTC segment, which represents highly visible assets, operating within trade patterns that continue to evolve, while also facing growing pressure to improve efficiency under changing regulatory and commercial conditions. We estimate that over the next 5 years, we could save the PCTC industry over 1.7m tonnes of fuel or nearly $850m in fuel costs alone, based on current fleet deployment assumptions and verified performance data.

As the market-leader in air lubrication, our robust naval-architect-led solution is third party verified. This means that when partners choose to work with us, they are choosing a highly experienced team and a practical, proven solution. There is a lot of satisfaction to be found in taking the time to lay solid foundations in technical detail, so that one can craft a high quality product and supercharge progress and innovation.

Since I founded Silverstream back in 2010 a lot has happened. We have grown exponentially from a handful of colleagues to over 100, expanding our network of experts across the globe. Having secured our first order in 2014, we now have over 250 orders.

Even as we evolve, our commitment to understanding our customers remains a constant. We will continue to work alongside them to ensure they get maximum value from our system and we continue to grow together to build a future empowered by air. This means more vessels with our system on board as well as broader integration into vessel design from day one.

London today. New York next week. The US remains a gravitational centre for decisions that shape the global maritime industry. Throughout this week, we have also had Silverstream colleagues on the ground in Miami at Seatrade Cruise Global. As the world’s largest cruise event, this is a key conference for us where we can connect with members of the cruise community, collaborate and shape what’s next for the industry.

One thing is clear, the conversation around maritime decarbonisation is truly global. I feel excited thinking about how far Silverstream has come and how much further we can go in the future.

2026 has opened with a renewed wave of geopolitical and economic uncertainty and many in the maritime community can be forgiven for feeling the adrenaline. Yet, it’s important to take stock of industry and regulatory developments over the past 12 months to recognise the opportunities ahead.

For most of 2025, maritime attentions were focused on the Net Zero Framework and what the International Maritime Organization’s proposals would herald for global shipping. The outcome of last October’s meeting of the Maritime Protection and Environmental Committee drew a sharp intake of breath for many shipping stakeholders as hopes of greater clarity around alternative fuels were dashed.

For the energy efficiency technology market and its fuel agnostic players, this meant that the critical role of how their solutions reduce fuel consumption became central to the maritime conversation with greater industry understanding that EETs are not “nice to have” but a “need to have” to futureproof tonnage.

This, however, was accompanied by increased scrutiny around the use of multiple EET solutions and rising demand for retrofits creating the requirement for greater shipyard capacity.

In recent years, the shipping mindset has shifted from seeking a single “silver bullet” for reducing fuel consumption to accepting a “portfolio” of solutions is required to cut fuel use and emissions. This has naturally led to complex decisions about which technologies are most suitable by vessel type and operating profile and the expected savings that EETs may deliver. According to ABS, answering these questions calls for a comprehensive approach that combines multiple EETs tailored to specific ship characteristics as the most effective way to achieve significant emissions reductions.

In its latest ‘Maritime Forecast to 2050’ report, DNV estimates that a combination of EETs can deliver fuel savings and emissions reductions of up to 16%. It notes the myriad of technologies available but points out that not all are independently verified or available to install at scale with confidence. Turning to installation, according to Lloyd’s Register, while the number of retrofit-capable yards has increased to around 16 shipyards, mainly located in China and the Middle East, retrofit capacity is currently at approximately 465 vessel conversions annually, which is below the projected peak requirement of more than 1,000 conversions per year.

Constraints in retrofit yard capacity have meant that EETs that rely on significant structural modification to vessels are less appealing than those that can be installed easily during planned dockings. At present, the market favours robust naval-architect-led systems, class engagement and verification discipline – the principles Silverstream Technologies is built on.

Despite the above-mentioned challenges, the appetite for EETs is clear. At the start of January 2026 –the number of in-service ships (above 100 GT) with energy efficiency technologies (EETs) onboard totalled 14,189, an increase of 11% from January 2025. According to data from Clarkson’s, some 47% of total in-service tonnage is now equipped with innovative emissions- reducing and fuel-saving technologies.

The volume of EETs installations, including onshore power supply facilities has grown every year since 2018, up 101% from 2019 to 2026 in terms of the number of ships.

And there is more good news. Shipowners contemplating EET retrofits might be able to tap into financial support. Late last year, Singapore’s Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation and leading lenders launched the world’s first ‘pay as you save’ retrofit fund. The $35m Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET) is targeted to scale to $500m by 2030 – an ambitious trajectory. The fund seeks to enable shipowners, technology providers, investors, and lenders to share performance risk while providing unsecured financing at competitive costs through an innovative blended finance approach.

Without doubt, the geopolitical environment, and the impact it may have on shipping, is something we will all have to carefully navigate, but we can at least take some comfort from our industry enhanced focus on EETs. That said, we must collectively do more to support shipping’s evaluation of existing EET options.