The pandemic has delayed further the long-awaited rectification in the oversupply of offshore vessels that was beginning to surface at the end of 2019.
As the pandemic hit, the global travel infrastructure and the price of oil crashed. Once again, the offshore industry was given the opportunity to test its ability to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions, and I was pleased with our team’s responsiveness and overall performance.
After a year like no other, TradeWinds asked 40 shipping industry stakeholders what they see for 2021 after a year beset by the coronavirus, and how the pandemic will shape shipping's future.
The pandemic underscored the importance of people. In the shipping industry, we often write about how many ships we own and how much tonnage we control, but none of that matters without the people skilled to commandeer these great fleets.
But while the pandemic underscored the importance of people, people were forgotten to some degree. In 2020, mariners suffered in two distinctly different but painful ways.
One group was restricted from leaving their vessels. Although they were generally better protected from exposure to the virus than their brethren stuck ashore, and a substantial majority were still getting paid, they had to endure the mental health consequences of being isolated onboard.
The other group was isolated at home. Although they were more likely to be with their families, they were also more likely to be exposed to the virus — and they were suffering financially due to their lack of active employment.
I am a strong believer in the resilience and ingenuity of humanity, and in its collective, endless ability to improve the world. I believe the technologies, vaccines and therapies the world collectively developed in response to the pandemic will provide numerous benefits to humanity for years to come.
Accordingly, I am optimistic about the world economy and the shipping markets in the second half of 2021 and beyond. The best companies are built during downturns, and I’m excited about the future I see for Tidewater in the offshore industry.
In 2021, as our heroes in the scientific community provide a pathway back to a more familiar — but perhaps not precisely familiar — way of life, my call to action is for us to work together to insure mariners are given priority access to vaccines in line with other high-risk workers.
I feel strongly that the world’s mariner population was forgotten in the fog of war that clouded 2020 and that we owe it to them to insure they are made a priority in 2021.
