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Clouds on the shipping horizon
It is summer and the sun is shining bright over Scandinavia and its shipping communities. Each one is prepared for the future, with a large fleet of modern ships. Orders have been placed for the ships of the future, which means deliveries in 2010 and 2011, so in that direction things are looking bright. But the horizon is not cloudless.

Recruitment is the weak spot for a bright and prosperous future for Scandinavian owners. Like it was said by a shipowner lately:
“Anyone can buy or order a ship, but to find the right crew to sail it, that is the challenge of the future.”

To nurse the young people in order to keep them on the seafaring job, or maybe the land-based job in shipping, will be the challenge of making shipping grow.
The Danish administration has a plan of Denmark being the leading European shipping nation by 2015. To do that, a huge effort must be made to catch the small amount of youngsters available, as the birth rate for children in the beginning of the 1980’s was almost halved. That is now a problem for the whole of the Danish community, as it is not only the maritime sector that cries for youngsters. The same goes for builders, banks, truck-drivers and nearly every segment of jobs.

On the shipping side, the big ones are working hard in all directions. The big five in the Denmark (A. P. Møller-Mærsk, Torm, D/S Norden and Scandlines) have their own training not only in Denmark, but also recruitment offices and schools in the Philippines, where Torm is preparing the future crew. D/S Norden has been moving in China with scholarships in Shanghai. A. P. Møller-Mærsk is the company that is doing a great effort to educate for the future. It has its own schools in Denmark, England, Singapore and Philippines, as well as special courses for Chinese seafarers and so on. Scandlines are naturally not as international as the others, but it is recruiting from Lithuania, Germany and Denmark.

In the future, shipping could be even more global than today, with a number of different nationalities onboard each ship. That makes for an interesting future.
This reminds me of a story told by a friend of mine. He sailed on a Swedish flagged ship carrying newsprint from Canada to California in the early 1960’s. On this ship there was a crew of 43 persons from 19 different countries.

“It was a happy ship” he said. “The only challenge was for the cook, who had to make 19 different dishes for Christmas dinner. Otherwise it was no problem.”

And in offshore, this month’s theme, there are often many different nationalities on board drilling rigs. It is not unusual to have ten different nationalities amongst a crew of 85 on a rig. Usually the rig has its own crew, but the operator may come with its own crew, and a national company could provide their own onboard. This would be the case, for instance, if a Danish rig was hired for drilling a hole in a Norwegian sector for an American operator.

Anyway, the future looks bright. Have a nice summer.

//Bent Mikkelsen