Anglo-Eastern has completed crew changes involving 10,000 seafarers, despite the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hong Kong shipmanager said the crew movements were evenly spread between seafarers joining ships and those signing off from vessels and involved more than 700 ships.
The company said it achieved the “incredible milestone” thanks to the efforts of its “family of dedicated seafarers and exceptionally hardworking … fleet personnel staff”.
“By nationality, we relieved or signed-on over 7,000 Indian seafarers, nearly 2,000 Filipinos, around 1,000 Ukrainians and Latvians, and more than 200 crew of Chinese or other nationality,” Anglo-Eastern said via social media.
“The journey has been far from easy. We have had to contend with lockdowns, travel restrictions, commercial flight limitations, testing or quarantine requirements, bureaucracy and other challenges.”
The shipmanager said many of the issues “still persist today”, as countries waver between “relaxing and (re)tightening” their crew change policies.
“But for now, let us celebrate this exceptional milestone and continue to push for crew changes and key-worker status for seafarers,” Anglo-Eastern said.
'Few rotten apples'
On Wednesday, Anglo-Eastern chief executive Bjorn Hojgaard blamed a “few rotten apples” for the decision by several Asian nations to restrict crew changes.
In a letter published in the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association chairman also said that infected seafarers deserve "support, not bias".
He said this minority of people had “brought disrepute to their peers and the industry”, which has been working hard to ensure smooth operation of the world's supply chain during a difficult time.
On Monday, TradeWinds reported that Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia announced they would be tightening their immigration policies in moves that would make it more difficult to conduct crew changes in their ports.
Officials in all three jurisdictions said enhancing crew-change safety measures would “further reduce the risk of importing Covid-19 cases”.
Hong Kong’s tightening of crew changeovers comes as the special administrative region struggles with a resurgence of the coronavirus.
Since Wednesday, authorities have not allowed vessels to call at its port expressly to conduct a crew change. However, ships carrying out cargo operations will not be affected.
More than 500,000 seafarers are said to be affected by the crew change crisis, with 250,000 trapped at sea, according to the International Chamber of Shipping.
