Rising crew wages push up ship operating expenses: poll

VESSEL operating costs are expected to rise 3.2 per cent this year and 3.5 per cent next, driven by rising crew costs, according to a survey by shipping consultant Moore Stephens based chiefly on responses from ship owners and managers in Europe and Asia.

"With fewer experienced crew available for worldwide fleet expansion, labour costs will rise," one respondent said.


Another said: "To keep the present pool of seafarers and improve performance, we will need to look at increases in wages and other benefits so they are attracted to work, rather than taking up lucrative jobs ashore."


Respondents also spoke of higher insurance costs, and costs arising from the weakened dollar, reported American Shipper. "Ship operating costs have been running at increasingly high levels in recent years, but our OpCost benchmarking tool shows that in 2009 total annual operating costs fell, for the first time in eight years, across all the main ship types by an average of two per cent," said Moore Stephens shipping partner Richard Greiner.


"But it does seem that some of the volatility of recent years has gone out of ship operating costs, and that is good news for shipping. Any repeat of the huge increases recorded in recent years would be unsustainable in the current economic climate."