Shipping’s crew-change crisis is far from over and could deteriorate even more in 2021, some of the world’s top ship managers have warned.
Despite concerted efforts by the industry, the issue remains stubbornly unresolved well into the second year of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive of Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, said the crew-rotation crisis is “far from over. In fact, 2021 is set to be worse than last year”.
He said the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in many crew-supply countries was making crew change in many cases “impossible”, due to ports’ shutting down for these nationality seafarers.
Peter Burkal, managing director of OSM Maritime Crew, echoed those sentiments saying that for more than a year crew changes have been a “major challenge” to the industry, putting a lot of stress on the crew.
“The crew-change crisis is by far from over and we must continue to put efforts into getting seafarers to be prioritised as key workers for easy travel and to get priority for vaccines,” he said.
A new crew-change indicator based on data from 10 leading ship managers and put together by the group behind the Neptune Declaration shows that by mid-April 5.8% of seafarers were on board vessels beyond the expiry of their contracts of employment.
About 0.4% of seafarers had been onboard vessels for more than 11 months — the maximum period allowed under the Maritime Labour Convention.
“While the percentages of the first indicator appear low, this should not be interpreted as an indication that the crew-change crisis is over,” Synergy Group chief executive Rajesh Unni said.
“On the contrary, we see worrying signs with the rapid spread of new strains of Covid, in India and other countries, which should be a big cause for concern for our industry.”
Ship managers contributing data for the Neptune Declaration crew-change indicator were Anglo-Eastern, Bernhard Schulte, Columbia Shipmanagement, Fleet Management, OSM, Synergy Marine, Thome, V.Group, Wallem, and Wilhelmsen Ship Management. Collectively, they have about 90,000 seafarers currently on board their ships.
Graham Westgarth, chairman of V.Group and a key driver behind the taskforce that developed the Neptune Declaration, said the new indicator would “enable the industry to better understand and address the crew-change crisis”.
“There is a need to have access to accurate data that will allow stakeholders to monitor and respond to the situation,” he said.
