The global tanker industry is facing a shortage of about 10,000 ship officers amid a growing fleet over the next four to five years, Peter Swift, managing director of Intertanko, said in an interview.
Intertanko is a association of independent tanker owners.
This trend is against the norm. The liquefied natural gas shipping sector is drawing crew from the tanker industry, and the tanker industry is in turn drawing people from the dry bulk sector,” he said.
This was due to higher salaries paid out by LNG shipping companies, he said.
Also, recruitment for ship crews has been slow due to a negative image of the shipping industry, Swift said.
“It was attractive to work in the shipping industry a long time ago because you could see the world, but there are more advantages to have a land-based job these days,” he said.
“There are less incentives for shipping now, especially when an ship accident occurs, the ship crew will be criminalized for it,” he said.
In addition, ship crew are not allowed to disembark their ships at foreign ports due to security reasons and faster turnaround for ships.
The manpower problem has resulted in crew members working long shifts and taking less vacation leave.
“The Intertanko council discussed this issue earlier this week, and it decided to adopt a training programme for tanker crew onboard the ships,” Swift said.
Tanker companies will build cadet berths or accommodation for training crew onboard the ships, with the aim to expedite the training process, he said.
“This will not solve the problem, but it will help alleviate the tight crew supply situation,” Swift said.
The cadet berths will address the shortage of crew in the officers department and the engineering sector, he said.
“There will be hard work to be done just to stay where we are now” on maintaining the manpower level, Swift said.
Some ship management firms also blamed the crew shortage on a surge in retirements of older officers and a lack of new recruits.
“As new ships get more sophisticated, we need more crew with new skills,” a ship manager said.
