Rising global fleet faces staff shortfall
London-based maritime consultancy Drewry draws attention to a growing concern of the high sea shipping industry, according to the latest Manning Annual Review and Forecast report.
Due to the diminishing attractiveness of a career at sea, coupled with rising man-berth ratios and continued fleet growth, the current shortfall of officers to crew the world’s merchant fleet will reach a decade peak by 2026.
While the current officer supply shortfall - estimated at around 3% of the global pool - is broadly manageable, it is masked to some extent by the temporary idling of vessels in certain sectors such as holiday cruises. Yet, looking ahead to 2026, the supply / demand gap is expected to widen to a deficit amounting to over 5% of the global officer pool and the highest level since 2013.
In the five years to 2016, the supply of seafarers available to crew the global merchant fleet was growing at an average annual rate of 2.7%, according to Drewry estimates.
However, over the last five years this growth rate has shrunk to just 0.5% annually. “With the ongoing negative effects of life at sea brought about by the Covide-19 pandemic, some seafarers may bring retirement plans forward, while others may look for work ashore,” said Drewry’s head of manning research Rhett Harris. (cd)