Shipping News - daily news about the international shipping business

A survey by Unisys Corporation on global shippers made public on September 13, 2006 concludes that the billions invested in consolidating the shipping industry by way of efficiency and improved customer service have been in vain. Nearly three quarters of major shippers prefer to deal with multiple shipping providers compared to concentrating their activities to a single supplier.

Speaking to the media, a Norwegian shipping official was of the opinion that escalating fuel prices have not hampered the boom in the global shipping business. President of Hoegh Fleet Services Inc. (HFI) is of the view that there is an ever-increasing demand for world transportation, for which the sea with the higher capacity of ships proves ideal.

With uninterrupted industry growth, he is confident that local seafarers will find employment opportunities with HFI on their vessels. The total number of seafarers employed by the world’s shipping industry is close to 1.2 million.

Statistics from the Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration (POEA) for Filipinos in seafaring jobs in early December 2005 were 236,431 marking an increase of 9.3 percent from the previous year. 72.2 percent of them were ratings 8.7 percent senior officers and 19.1 percent junior officers.

In February, the International Labor Organization report published its findings about automated modern ships having redefined the requisite skills for seafarers. The report also found no disruption in the increasing demand for skilled deck officers and engineers.

A report by the Bangko Aentral ng Pilipinas also put the total remittances by Filipino seamen at $1.2 billion or 16 percent of the total amount that overseas Filipino workers sent home in the initial nine months in 2005.

The spiraling fuel prices may have crippled many players in the shipping industry, but the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) citing an industry report by Negros Navigation Co. (Nenaco) in 2004 predicted an industry growth averaging 16 percent within five years. This implies an added market value of P20 billion by 2010.

A $400 million investment in the next six years has been earmarked by India’s biggest engineering group Larsen & Toubro for shipbuilding. The ambitious move is aimed at garnering the market share for small vessels even as South Koreans rivals are engaged in record orders.

Manufacturing, services and information technology are the other interests of the company. The fiscal year 2005/2006 witnessed total revenue to the tune of USD 3.3 billion and net income of USD 217.2 million.

The Chief Executive Officer of Larsen & Toubro revealed in an interview, the company’s intention to pick a deep-water year in the current year to initiate ship-building for 25,000 plus tons over the next three years. The Mumbai-based company has budgeted half the funds for the first three years with plans for a separate entity to oversee the business.

The shipping ministry with its base in New Delhi acknowledges 23 shipyards in India, nine of which are state-owned with a combined capacity to the tune of 110,000 dead weight tons. The National Maritime Development Programme reports government plans for 72 billion rupees in setting up two yards.

Clarkson PLC, the biggest shipbroker the world over, reveals that almost 207 billion US dollars was spent by Shipowners in the past three years on new vessels, among them tankers and container carriers which is identical to that of the preceding decade.

The prediction from, Sverre Bjorn Svenning, chief of research at Oslo, the Norwegian shipbroker Fearnleys AS, is that hurdles will remain for Indian companies in wooing customers with a tradition of dependence on South Korea and Japan for ship orders.

An unprecedented backlog of 40 million compensated gross tons was registered by South Korean shipyards, an indication of time and human resources involved per ton built, at the conclusion of the first half, which is expected to engage shipbuilders for over three years. The estimate from the International Monetary Fund for global trade is an increase of 7.6 percent this year, leading to a demand for river barges to ocean-bound container ships.