Shipmanagement

A new attitude to shipmanagement

Senior executives need a big change in thought leadership when it comes to shipmanagement

Kicking off coverage of this autumn’s Maritime CEO Forum held at the Monaco Yacht Club are key takeaways from our wide-ranging debate on how the shipmanagement sector is set to undergo significant change in the coming decade.

Featuring the heads of a number of the best known shipmanagers in the world, the panel debate discussed shipping’s long held reticence to outsource, the fierce competition for talent, and where future crew might hail from.

Shipping sticks out compared to many other industries for its unwillingness to outsource, with just 16% of the global merchant fleet handled by third party managers, with major owning nations such as Greece especially tough markets to crack.

However, panellists reckoned the situation was changing, with John-Kaare Aune, the CEO of Wallem Group, going so far as to predict the volume of ships under third party management could double by the end of the decade.

“There is a big change. We have very different companies coming knocking on our doors,” said Finn Amund Norbye, the CEO of OSM Maritime Group,

“The brain drain in certain nationalities in not selecting a career at sea should keep us all awake at night”

saying even large shipowners were now seeking out managers, thanks to the increased complexity of the business and rising overall costs.

“It is extremely challenging for owners to stay on top of all the regulations,” said Wallem’s Aune.

René Kofod-Olsen, the CEO of V.Group, said that shipping needed to overhaul its mindset when it comes to outsourcing, something that could be achieved via proper auditing.

The panel all called for greater longterm partnerships between managers and owners with Kuba Szymanski, secretary-general of managers association InterManager, hitting out at owners who see the role of managers as merely “plugging gaps”.

Discussion then turned to crew welfare, something that has been in sharp relief during the covid pandemic.

“The brain drain in certain nationalities in not selecting a career at sea should keep us all awake at night,” warned Kofod-Olsen who oversees one of the world’s largest shipmanagement operations.

Working out how to ensure crew can see a long term career was deemed vital by panellists and delegates alike, with shipmanagement veteran Roberto Giorgi questioning from the floor just how many managers were willing to give incentives to retain crew.

“What is coming are a lot of ships propelled in a totally different fashion. We are not ready for that. If we don’t invest in people, and if they don’t have line of sight of where they can go they might not choose a career at sea,” said Kofod-Olsen, adding that shipping had also failed to get women to work onboard.

“How do we figure out to get a more inclusive crew?” Kofod-Olsen mused. “We have not been good enough to ensure as an industry that life onboard is safe.”

From the floor, Henrik Jensen, who heads up crew manager Danica, warned delegates that other industries were coming in to take talent away from shipping, citing the IT sector in the Philippines as a good example.

“We have to have a real rethink about how we employ people. The competition for talent from other industries such as IT is a real threat,” Jensen said.

V.Group’s Kofod-Olsen argued that the stereotypical view of where ratings will come from in the future is set for change. “These barriers will break down,” he predicted.

The panel debated about where new sources of crew might come from with InterManager’s Szymanski surprising the audience by revealing that the UK is by some distance the most dynamic country in Europe in terms of new seafarers per year because of tax. Around 1,000 youngsters are joining maritime colleges for free in the UK every year. ●

“The competition for talent from other industries such as IT is a real threat”