Maritime advisory

Expertise Projects Insights Sectors Services FAQ

WSP provides specialist maritime advisory services across the full value chain, helping clients make confident strategic, operational and investment decisions in a fast-changing market. Our teams support governments, regulators, port and terminal operators, financiers, investors, shipowners and operators, fuel producers and supply-chain industries with expertise spanning port strategy, operations, financial modelling, transactions, decarbonization and asset performance.

Our specialized expertise includes container terminals, dry and liquid bulks, Ro-Ro, general/breakbulk commodities, chilled/frozen goods, ferries, shipbuilding and repair, offshore vessels, and passenger and cruise terminals.

Dedicated maritime advisory services

Policy advisory

From policy through techno-economic analysis to deployment, we help maritime clients navigate the energy transition with confidence, reducing the cost and risk associated with new technologies, fuels, and infrastructure. Our proven track record with policymakers, including the European Commission, the International Maritime Organization, national governments and industry stakeholders enables us to support clients across the full policy lifecycle and respond to evolving regulatory and market requirements.

We provide robust evidence and strategic insight through services such as emissions quantification, cost-benefit analysis, lifecycle assessment, scenario planning, decarbonization modelling and regulatory impact assessment. Our expertise spans maritime decarbonization strategies, National Action Plans, and evolving international and regional regulatory frameworks. By combining cross-sector expertise with practical market insight, we help clients make informed, future-ready investment and strategy decisions.

Strategy and operations advice

The global maritime market is a challenging and complex environment with constantly changing market conditions, policies and regulatory frameworks. Our team provides detailed market insights to assist clients in becoming future-ready. We help our clients to identify, develop, and implement strategic initiatives, drawing on decades of industry experience in all main geographies. We provide strategic advice on market structure and trends, business planning, benchmarking, restructuring, traffic and demand modelling, tariff modelling, and developing a "go-to market" strategy. By combining financial, technical, and operational expertise, WSP assists with the commercial decision-making process while minimizing investment risk.

Venture optimization

Our port advisory services focus not only on financial aspects, but also on operational, managerial, market environment, maintenance, technology, and expansion potential. We follow a structured approach to optimize business operations by identifying, defining, planning, and implementing initiatives that will unleash significant value improvement potential from current assets. Our in-house database provides a solid base to benchmark productivity and assist with the quantification of gaps between current assets and processes relative to best practices. WSP offers a unique proposition that combines input from our commercial, technical and operational knowledge base to explore benefits that will be realized over the short, medium and long term.

Financial modelling and business case development

To determine the potential value of a new project, investment, or initiative, our financial modelling experts operate at the intersection of commercial, technical, and financial requirements. Our approach is tailored to the client’s valuation model and our models form the basis of the business case development for investment decisions. By combining in-house market forecast expertise with technical (CAPEX and OPEX) projections, we can accurately forecast the future earning potential of an investment. Our experts validate the market data and ensure that the business case has the right scope for the project being considered.

We can approach projects from a wide range of angles: business valuation, scenario preparation for strategic planning, cost of capital calculations for corporate finance projects, capital budgeting decisions, operational planning and allocation of corporate resources. In addition, our models can incorporate projections and trends for forecasting purposes, benchmarking to industry standards and ratio analysis.

Fuel and chemical safety

Green shipping corridors

Acknowledging that green shipping corridors are helping accelerate the decarbonization of shipping, WSP facilitates this by bringing together ports, vessel operators, fuel suppliers, governments, and investors to scale alternative fuels, technologies, and infrastructure along key trade routes. By concentrating demand and investment, these initiatives reduce deployment risk, support infrastructure decisions, and create early markets for zero and near-zero-emission fuels.

WSP provides end-to-end support, from route screening and feasibility assessment to investment planning and implementation. Our services include emissions baselining, alternative fuel assessments, vessel transition studies, techno-economic analysis, stakeholder engagement, and infrastructure planning. For public-sector clients, this creates the evidence base needed to shape policy, align with decarbonization targets, and justify investment. For infrastructure and commercial clients, it provides a clearer pathway for planning, prioritizing capital, and reducing investment risk.

Energy investment advisory

To support ports in responding to growing high-value energy investment and shore-power demand, we provide independent technology-agnostic advice to help them minimize their energy investment lifetime costs and avoid stranded or under-utilized assets. To tackle the significant cost and resilience implications, WSP helps clients identify future-proof, least-regret pathways across grid upgrades, on-site generation, battery storage, hydrogen, and alternative fuels. Using robust evidence, modelling tools, and our proprietary SPARK platform, we optimize energy portfolios at a system level to reduce capital costs, avoid stranded assets, and strengthen adaptability to evolving market, regulatory, and climate pressures. The result is a clear, defensible roadmap that supports confident, long-term decision-making and more resilient port operations.

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Port Asset Management

WSP helps port owners and operators improve performance outcomes through better asset management across the full asset lifecycle. From strategic planning and technology strategy to condition inspections, capital planning, maintenance optimization, and rehabilitation, we provide integrated support tailored to each client’s priorities, operations, and workforce. Our expertise in ISO 55001-aligned consulting, organizational transformation, and asset performance management helps clients balance risk, cost, and performance while extending asset life and improving efficiency. Supported by tools such as am2c and am2p, we help ports strengthen decision-making, plan investment with confidence, and sustain high-performing, resilient operations.

PPP advisory

In many ports today, the public sector acts mainly as planner, facilitator, and regulator, while the private sector acts as service provider, operator, and developer. WSP is experienced in assisting clients with applying for funding for a wide variety of port projects. This includes investment by contractors (especially relevant in cases where there is a large construction element associated with the project), equity investment from strategic investors such as pension funds, sovereign funds and insurance companies, subsidies from governments and operating revenues/ user taxes (in the case of brownfield port assets) and bank loans from commercial banks, multilaterals, development banks, and/or Sukuk.

Transaction services

Although mergers and acquisitions are commonly recognized as significant opportunities to create business development potential, they also present a potentially significant risk to the acquirer. Professional Due Diligence reduces exposure to risks involved in acquisition and investments and improves the chances of success. WSP has an extensive track record in undertaking Commercial, Technical, and EHS (Environmental, Health, and Safety) Due Diligence assessments.

Our bespoke consultancy services predominantly focus on findings that could have investment implications. Drawing on our wide in-house expertise, we provide perspective on opportunities, as well as risks at all stages of the investment cycle. Our services range from providing traditional pre-acquisition and vendor Due Diligence to assessments of port assets and portfolios. Our approach facilitates the identification of potential hidden cost, translating significant issues into clear expenditure (CAPEX and/or OPEX) projections. Our reports contain clear and succinct recommendations and highlight key findings for the financial and/or reputation implications of an investment.

Maritime advisory projects

Los Angeles, California, USA

Port of Long Beach Strategic Land Use Study

The Port of Long Beach is preparing to meet the future by initiating a broad, long-term Land Use Study, using PRIME.

thn-container-vancouver-fraser-port-authority

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Long-term Container Traffic Forecasts for Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

WSP is providing ongoing commercial and advisory support to Vancouver Fraser Port Authority relating to container terminal facilities, with a detailed market study and long-term container forecasts.