Start-up breezes in on Oceanroutes' monopoly.

(From Lloyds List)

APPLIED Weather Technology was founded in California's San Francisco Bay area in 1994 by a core team headed up by its chief executive and senior route analyst, Jung Soo Kang, writes Rajesh Joshi.

Mr Kang, a South Korean meteorologist with master's degree qualifications from the University of Miami, left market leader Oceanroutes to start up AWT. His start-up team, also from Oceanroutes, included George Schlinkert, an American with a degree from the University of California at Davis whose entire 25-year career has been spent in atmospherics.

AWT's arrival broke the virtual monopoly that had been enjoyed by Oceanroutes until that time, and today the California company is an up-and-coming player. The 1,400-odd ships that use its routeing service are estimated to represent 20% of the total market, with Oceanroutes since subsumed into Weathernews still enjoying an overwhelming market lead.

AWT has a total of 38 employees in South Korea, China, Hong Kong, the US and Europe.

Data used in AWT's services is derived from many sources, Mr Schlinkert says. These include publicly available streams such as the US government-funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Centres for Environmental Prediction and the World Meteorological Organisation.

However, this data is imported into AWT's own software. The company's flagship product is called the BonVoyage system, which is described as a 'combination of software and data'.