• Held Shipping to handle lubricant purchasing for 30 ships via world's largest procurement platform
• Customer acquisition relies on technical integration between Closelink and Fleettracker, the fleet performance tool from Herberg Systems
• "By partnering with Held Shipping and Herberg Systems, we continue to foster our long-term goal of creating efficient and simple processes in global purchasing," says Philippe Lavarde, founder and CEO of Closelink
• Closelink’s platform improves efficiency and allows significant cost savings in ship management

Closelink, largest procurement platform for maritime lubricants, has welcomed Held Shipping as a new customer. The ship manager with a fleet of around 30 ships will from now on handle the procurement of all engine oils, lubricants, and greases via the Hamburg-based company's procurement platform. Next to fuel, lubricants are one of the largest cost categories. An average 2.800 TEU container ship needs more than 60 tons of engine oil per year as well as up to 20 additional lubricants worth more than 100.000 dollars to operate auxiliary engines, on- board machinery, or pumps. The global market for maritime lubricants is currently estimated at six billion US dollars per year.

As part of the partnership, Closelink also created a standardized interface to Fleettracker’s fleet performance tool for the first time. The service from Herberg Systems offers, for example, a scheduling management system that provides all relevant trip information and agent data and automatically informs about potential modifications. Closelink is connected to Fleettracker's system via interface and can thus use it to analyze and evaluate customer data, schedules and lube oil tank level data before transferring them to its own platform. This amount of data can then be used to optimize inventory management and purchase planning.After initial discussions with Held Shipping at the beginning of the Corona crisis, the integration of schedules was carried out in the summer, followed shortly by the integration of fill level data (Remainings on Board) for all 30 ships using Herberg's system daily. Further integration projects in the purchasing range are planned and currently in the development stage for both new and existing customers.

‍Common goal: Optimize processes, create standards, promote cooperation

‍"Closelink and Fleettracker are pursuing the same goal: to make shipping processes more efficient by using digital tools. The industry needs those innovations, and we already have more ideas in the pipeline,"

says Jan Herberg, Managing Director of Herberg Systems.

The partnership between Closelink, Fleettracker and Held Shipping highlights the benefits of the independent procurement platform: the integration of software and data between the partners provides more clarity and a central hub of information. It also ensures that Closelink can send order recommendations. The technology thus enables data-driven decisions and establishes a standard for ordering marine lubricants, regardless of the number of potentially different suppliers.

"With its data-driven decisions, Closelink's platform is a great support in optimizing our lubricant purchasing. The knowledge, but especially Closelink's ambition to challenge existing processes, to optimize them and thus create new standards for the industry, convinced us. We are pleased to contribute to the ongoing digitalization of the shipping industry with this cooperation,"

adds Jan Held, Managing Director of Held Shipping.

Despite the ongoing corona crisis and the pressure for the entire industry, Lavarde sees further growth potential for the Hamburg-based company with its ten employees. "The mutual understanding makes it possible to address even more customers. Through our cooperation with Held and the integration with existing systems, we have been able to deepen our technical and operational knowledge and further optimize the customer's lubricating oil purchasing process while using Closelink. This is an important message, especially in light of the ongoing Corona crisis," Lavarde continues.

‍Digital platform for maritime lubricants: more efficient, transparent, and affordable

‍Closelink is one of the pioneers in the digitalization of the maritime industry. The platform can be used to store the contracts negotiated with suppliers for lubricant purchasing, including supplier information on potential ports of delivery as well as product availability and prices. Buyers can now also use Closelink to compare price scenarios, request availability, trigger orders and view statistics at the click of a mouse. In individual cases, savings of up to 30 percent are possible.

"We are very pleased that our platform will from now on also be used in Held Shipping's lubricant purchasing. With the help of the connection to Fleettracker, we have created the possibility for them not only to reactively deal with demand reports, but also to proactively control the ships. For efficient and simple processes, cooperation with partners like Held Shipping and Fleettracker is essential," says Philippe Lavarde, founder and CEO of Closelink.

‍More than 80 suppliers of marine lubricants already on Closelink

‍Today, well over 50 percent of the world's available suppliers of marine lubricants are already represented on the platform, including the leading global manufacturers. More than ten customers on over 250 vessels now work daily with Closelink's solution, which integrates with all enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This makes Closelink the world's largest procurement platform for marine lubricants. The company itself remains completely independent. The platform participates via annual user fees per ship and a staggered transaction fee for new business generated via the platform. Closelink is supported by well-known investors such as Ricardo co-founder Stefan Wiskemann, the Next Logistics Accelerator and the maritime early-stage investor TecPier.