Quality squeeze as rates fall
Posted on | February 14, 2012 | No Comments
As more ship operators call in the friendly receiver as the grim shadow of overcapacity falls over most shipping sectors, should we be surprised if standards start to diminish?
Previous recessions (and nobody can jib at the use of the “R” word in a maritime context) have all seen maintenance standards drop, and desperate operators using all sorts of curious practices to keep operating as shippers fail to listen to their entreaties for “reasonable” levels of remuneration.
Already we have begun to see movement in the ship management field, with owners looking for managers who can undertake their work cheaper. This is not brilliant news as nobody could reasonable claim that even the “Rolls-Royce” managers are exactly milking their customers. Port state inspectors comment on the use of people shifting to cheaper and thus probably more inexpert crews, and of some deterioration in those little indicators like engineroom cleanliness and cosmetics. Similarly class is seeing movement away from the IACS members to the “others” and more arguments about necessary repairs, which are being deferred or minimised.
There is movement in ship registration, with struggling operators avoiding the best (and thus most particular) flags and moving to some of what we might cruelly suggest are “registers of last resort”.
None of which is even remotely healthy in a shipping industry which needs to be better, more precise and productive, if it is to maintain the sort of reputation which has been gained by its best practitioners. They may not be stooping to any of these desperate measures, but the reputation of all tends to be damaged by the disasters of the careless or unprincipled few.
It’s not, as Clay himself has suggested in earlier blogs, a healthy trend.
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