sailor today - singh marine · sailor today december 2016 distributed in india ... cargo to...

Sailor Today | YOUR LINK ASHORE WHILE AT SEA | www.sailortoday.net | December 2016 11

The shipping industry is

going through some

unprecedented trying

phase. All elements of shipping

be it ownership, chartering, ship

management or manning is

being tested. Companies that

were considered solid, yards that

had three years wait for new

building order intake, owners

who took some of the biggest

bets in shipping, all are skeptical

and waiting for an upward trend.

Our manning business is no

exception to that. Reduction in

tonnage, lay-up of ships, record

low price of oil, and even lower

commodity movement has

further acerbated the prospects

of seafarers from all countries.

Therefore, in September

2016 I decided to visit Hong

Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and

Singapore and meet our existing

as well as prospective customers

to understand what lay ahead for

all of us. These three cities are

the three biggest shipping hub

cities in Asia and I was confident

that I would get some guidance

on how the business will pan out

in coming years. Among shipping

companies that I visited in Hong

Kong represents mostly Dry-

Cargo ships owners and ship

mangers. On the other hand in

Kuala Lumpur my focus has been

mostly LNG and Chemical

Dr. Binay Singh, Singh Marine Management Ltd., Odessa, Ukraine

My South East Asia Visit

Sailor Today | YOUR LINK ASHORE WHILE AT SEA | www.sailortoday.net | December 201612

Tototheo Group specializes in innovative, efficient and functional solutions in the fields of satellite and radio communication, automation, navigation systems and Ship repairs. Headquarters are in Cyprus with branch offices in Greece and Singapore. The company supplies, services, integrates and installs high-quality sophisticated on-board electronic equipment.

Tankers. Singapore for our

company represents the most

diverse ship base, starting from

LNG to tankers and from dry

cargo to offshore vessels.

Predominantly the ship

managers and ship owners in the

cities I visited employ Indian,

Chinese, Filipino and FSU

seafarers. You also see pockets

of the seafarers that tend to

have niche presence from

countries like Myanmar, Sri

Lanka, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Naturally, purpose of my visit

was to meet my existing

customers and to see how we

can support them in their

emerging manning needs.

Further, to know the real

situations in their business so

that we can add value in their

operations by providing them

Ukrainian seafarers when they

need.

One thing that you realize

very quickly when you meet

some of the biggest employers of

seafarers is that the market

reality is not as bad as we

perceive from our hometown

Odessa. The reality is that there

is a perpetual shortage of good

and qualified officers almost in

all companies. Further, the

traditional strongest manning

sources represent a big

challenge in ensuring quality and

attitude of seafarers – be it

India, China, Philippines or

Ukraine. So there will remain a

need for independent manning

companies such as ours to

bridge the gap in high quality

ship owners and mangers

manning pool. Of course the gap

in dry vessels pool is less than

that for tankers. Especially for

chemical tankers the gaps in

supply and demand of high

quality seafarers--especially

senior officers--are very much.

But even in dry vessels, reefer

vessels and large container

carriers have similar challenges.

Coming from India, being an

India it was also a bit

uncomfortable to hear from most

of the companies I visited that

Indian seafarers are losing their

lead in manning the world fleet

and not because of competence

but more due to attitude and

cost competitiveness especially

in today’s market conditions.

As a broader trend in the

market I also felt that larger

companies--companies that are

managing vessels in excess of

100 vessels--are fine and do not

feel the heat of market slow

down as much as smaller

company with 20-30 ships.

These smaller companies and

owners are feeling the crisis

more severely and have to do a

lot of adjustments in operating

their ships to have cost effective

operations. Manning remains

their biggest concern. There was

another noticeable trend -

several new companies have

come that have started

operations in last 2-3 years. It

seems they are able to survive,

thanks to their lean structure,

manning flexibility and strong

relationships with their owners.

For companies having more

than 100 vessels in their

management, I felt that they are

quite selective in what ships they

operate, from where they

operate, and if they are ship

manager what type of owners

they want to work with. They are

happy to manage those ships

that enhance their portfolio in

this difficult market. They are

also selective in their crew pool

choice and a bit constrained by

their commitment to their own

traditional crew sources and

crew pool. But managers and

ship owners with tanker fleet,

especially chemical tankers are

facing the shortage of officers as

well as ratings and requirements

is very high for such specialized

vessels. Some of the push is also

coming from the oil majors’

Sailor Today | YOUR LINK ASHORE WHILE AT SEA | www.sailortoday.net | December 2016 13

stringent experience matrix

demands. Some of the other

concerns that I could feel were

high wages demands from

ratings as well and language

competence making some

sources of seafarers less

attractive.

However, the offshore market

is going through unprecedented

tough times. Need for new

sources of manning are limited,

if not non-existent and they are

somehow trying to retain their

own pool. This is one of the

reasons, we see in Odessa, that

due to such a poor demand

scenario almost all officers and

ratings who have had solid

experience in offshore sector are

willing to join non offshore

vessels, be it dry or wet fleet at

much lower wages.

Market has also become

more seafarer friendly over the

years. Ships owners and

mangers that provide seafarers

various benefits and perks seem

to have higher retention. But the

higher wage remains the primary

attraction of seafarers

irrespective of the country of

origin of officers as well ratings.

Almost all owners and ship

mangers invite officers for

seminars and fleet officers’

conference (even some times

abroad). Many of the companies

have resorted to paying contract

completion bonus, re-joining

bonus, and family insurance over

the years. It is natural that the

companies that look after

seafarers’ social affairs, their

retention rate is in the region of

80 – 90 % and majority of

seafarers would like to join such

a company rather than a

company who only pays wages.

But given the market conditions,

shrinking of global tonnage and

complete lack of demand in

certain sectors such as offshore

and resultant conversion of those

officers, is putting a tremendous

pressure on such perks and

benefits. It seems the newly

emerging smaller owners and

managers are able to avoid these

payouts for sake of gaining

market share and

competitiveness. The question

that the robust and larger

players are faced with is –

should they continue to provide

seafarers more social welfare in

addition to wages to have

excellent retention ratio and not

feel lack of officers or do they

need to look at alternatives.

Should they continue to recruit

cadets to have fresh blood in

order to grow and build up good

pool of seafarers or wait for

market to recover? Of course, as

a manning company we would

like to have more and more

cadets and in the long run it

pays itself multiple folds. But

also, it is understandable that

the commercially imperatives of

today’s market reality does not

provide for such foresight for

most of the players, large or

small.

One thing that is always

striking in Asia- warm, open

hearted and excellent hospitality

of the colleagues in shipping

companies, as such, I am very

thankful and indebted to all our

clients for the great hospitality.

Here’s wishing all my

Principals and potential Partners

best of luck and full steam

ahead.

Videotel produces the highest quality e-Learning training materials and management software for all commercial maritime sectors, ports and terminals, offshore and more.

sailor today - singh marine · sailor today december 2016 distributed in india ... cargo to...

Documents