Drewry says
Shipping Will Require Additional 42,500 Officers by End of 2019
According to an analysis by Drewry, shipping will require an additional 42,500 officers by the end of 2019 to cope with the expected growth in the main cargo carrying fleet.
The latest Manning report of the global shipping consultancy shows that the current officer supply is in the order of 615,000 meaning approximately 15,000 officers are in nominal shortfall. The shortfall is currently filled up by officers working in longer shift patterns.According to Malcolm Jupe, Lead Analyst at Drewry, there was still a shortfall of officers but the shortage between demand and supply has shrunk because the recent growth in fleet size is coming to an end.
“It is also the case that ships are getting bigger and larger ships provide more shipping capacity for the same number of vessels. Drewry believes that this is also helping to ease some of the pressure on manning,” the consultancy firm said.
Manning is normally the single largest cost head in ship operations. Keeping these costs under control remains very important to all ship owners, especially when trading conditions are weak, as is the case in some of the key shipping freight markets, such as dry bulk carriers”, concludes Jupe.