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Lloyd’s Register (LR) has joined the Digital Container Shipping Association’s DCSA+ partnership programme.

By joining DCSA+, LR becomes part of a global community of carriers, shippers, terminals, forwarders and technology providers working together to align the industry behind open digital standards.

The DCSA+ programme provides a structured platform for collaboration, enabling partners to connect with peers and contribute directly to the development of practical, scalable digital solutions for the container shipping ecosystem.

As an official partner, LR will initially engage in the development of the Operational Vessel Schedules (OVS) standard, an initiative focused on improving visibility and coordination across the vessel schedule value chain.

Nick Gross, Global Container Ship Segment Director, LR, said: “Joining the DCSA positions us at the forefront of digital transformation within the containership segment. Our focus is on developing digital solutions to provide greater operational efficiency, which are dependable and scalable. Partnering with DCSA members enables us to combine our technical expertise with real-world insight, helping to shape common standards and practical solutions to make data more accessible, reliable and useful for all stakeholders in the containership value chain.”

Mariana Bock-Losada, Chief Growth Officer at DCSA, said: “Lloyd’s Register adds valuable technical and operational depth to the DCSA+ community. Their involvement reinforces our joint ambition to accelerate the adoption of digital standards across container shipping and to build a more connected, efficient, and sustainable industry.”  

Jeremy Daoust, Head of Market Management & Insights, OneOcean added: “OneOcean has a long history of connecting ships, fleets and people to deliver clarity and foresight through a digital ecosystem.  Our solutions cover navigation, compliance, ESG and decision support for more than 30,000 vessels, serving over 1 million seafarers. As such, we look forward to working closely with the DCSA, to share our expertise, and help maritime leaders run safer, smarter, more sustainable operations across the value chain.”

DCSA+ extends DCSA’s work beyond carriers to the wider ecosystem, enabling technology providers and other partners to play an active role in building the standards that power global trade.

Drop-in alternative liquid fuels—Renewable Diesel (RD) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)—offer material near-term abatement for hard-to-electrify transport segments, such as Aviation and heavy-duty transport; their deployment depends on pathway-specific costs, hydrogen requirements, and policy design. This paper evaluates four production routes—Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), Fischer–Tropsch (FT), Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ), and electro-SAF (eSAF/PtL)—including co-processing options across the European Union, the United States, and Brazil, using a harmonized techno-economic model with Monte-Carlo uncertainty to estimate factory-gate costs, decompose cost drivers, quantify hydrogen needs (internal versus external), and compute 50% blend prices relative to fossil comparators.

Per kg of fuel at factory gate, results show a stable cost ranking:

• HEFA sits at $1.6–$1.1/kg
• FT clusters around $1.6–$1.4/kg
• ATJ lies at $2.1–$1.6/kg
•  eSAF is near $5.3–$5.0/kg

With feedstock emerging as the dominant lever for HEFA/ATJ, capital and site services for FT, and energy inputs (clean H₂ and power) plus CO₂ supply for eSAF; hydrogen-price sensitivity is decisive only for eSAF. Across the different locations considered within this study at 50% blends, parity expressed as carbon-price equivalents indicates ≈$130–$45/tCO₂ for HEFA, ≈$130–$90/tCO₂ for FT, ≈$210–$125/tCO₂ for ATJ, and ≈$710–$670/tCO₂ for eSAF. On this basis, the paper proposes a sequenced strategy: scale HEFA and FT now with blending-credit architectures and feedstock/utility enablers, expand ATJ where alcohol logistics confer advantage, and unlock eSAF as clean-hydrogen and CO₂ costs fall, aligning instruments with pathway-specific cost drivers.

By: Abdurahman Alsulaiman, Gustavo Castro Ribeiro, Thiago Brito, Rafael Capaz, Joaquim Seabra