Marine Industry Filing Buzz: 23% Drop in Industrial Automation Mentions in Q4 2021

Mentions of industrial automation in maritime company filings fell 23% between the third and fourth quarters of 2021.

In total, the frequency of convictions related to industrial automation in 2021 was 33% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from which our data is drawn for this article, began tracking the main issues mentioned in the documents filed by the businesses.

When companies in the maritime industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other documents, GlobalData analyzes the text and identifies individual phrases related to the disruptive forces the companies will face in the years to come. Industrial automation is one such topic – companies that excel and invest in these areas are considered better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to overcome unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether industrial automation features more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the maritime industry, two measures were calculated. First, we looked at the percentage of companies that mentioned industrial automation at least once in their statements over the last twelve months, which was 61% compared to 45% in 2016. Second, we calculated the percentage of the total analyzed sentences referring to industrial automation. automating.

Among the 10 largest employers in the maritime industry, Royal Mail is the company that has referred to industrial automation the most in 2021. GlobalData has identified 51 phrases related to industrial automation in documents filed by the UK-based company, or 0.4% of all phrases. Yamato mentioned industrial automation second – the issue was mentioned in 0.3% of sentences in company filings. DSV, Post Italiane and FedEx are among the other top employers citing high industrial automation.

This analysis provides a rough indication of which companies are focusing on industrial automation and how important the issue is in the maritime industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted with caution. For example, a company that mentions industrial automation more regularly is not necessarily evidence that it is using new techniques or prioritizing the problem, nor does it indicate whether companies within the company in industrial automation have been successes or failures.

Last quarter, US-based marine industry companies were the most likely to mention industrial automation with 0.22% of phrases in company filings referencing the issue. In contrast, companies headquartered in Asia only mention industrial automation in 0.09% of sentences.