The ABS Nautical Systems SafeNet ChemSTOW module has received the prestigious Seatrade Award in the category "New IT Applications For The Shipping Industry." ChemSTOW offers a solution to stowage planning for a long list of bulk liquids carried by sea and numerous evolving rules governing their transportation. The carriage of chemicals is a complex equation where the main variables are: safety, quality, compatibility, stability, revenue optimization, and cargo/port planning.

As with anything in the marine industry, safety is paramount. ChemSTOW addresses safety by incorporating many internationally accepted chemical databases, such as the USCG CHRIS code and coating databases, among others, and then assesses cargoes against these databases and the exact ship's arrangement and piping configuration. It is this incorporation of these data sources and the evaluation of previous cargoes that provides the quality of stowage that a shipper desires. One of the most notable algorithms in ChemSTOW is the compatibility logic.

The compatibility check includes seventeen different checks to ensure that it is proper to stow a cargo as well as to determine what effects it may have on other cargoes that are planned at later ports. Noteworthy checks within the compatibility logic include: adjacent cargoes (both those already on board and those planned), coating suitability, heating of adjacent cargoes, as well as tank history, just to name a few. As with any complete marine software package, ChemSTOW incorporates a replication module to ensure that office and the vessel are working with the same data, which reduces the time it takes to quickly and to effectively evaluate cargoes for carriage.