In 2021, the problem of seafarers' difficulty in changing shifts may become more serious
Bjørn Højgaard, CEO of Anglo-Eastern, the world’s top ship management company, said, “Due to the current rising rate of new coronavirus infections in several countries, it is still difficult to replace crews. These developments make people worry that the crisis in 2021 may be worse than last year. more serious."
The rising rate of new coronavirus infections in some countries has brought additional concerns to the shipping industry about crew changes, as the latest restrictions have made it more difficult for seafarers to disembark and disembark in Asian ports.
Until mid-April, 5.8% of seafarers in the world were still working on ships when their contracts expired. According to a press release in the Neptune Declaration, 0.4% of seafarers have worked on ships for more than 11 months. The "Neptune Declaration" initiative was formed to promote the replacement of crew members after major problems occurred during the new crown pneumonia crisis.
Anglo-Eastern CEO Bjørn Højgaard said that the situation is expected to deteriorate further this year as the new coronavirus pandemic continues to challenge. "The crew shift crisis is far from over. In fact, the situation in 2021 will be worse than last year. Recently, the number of new coronary pneumonia cases in many crew supply countries has surged. Due to the closure of ports, it is impossible to replace crews in many cases."
Recently, Singapore’s health authorities have banned crew replacement operations on ships that have visited Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka within 14 days.
Højgaard also stated that in order to avoid seafarers staying on the ship longer than necessary, they need to be given priority in the vaccination queue.
"The very low numbers currently reported by major ship management companies do not represent the actual situation on the ground and the deteriorating situation in the coming months. What our industry needs is to give priority to seafarers and ports/countries to be vaccinated to allow The vaccinated seafarers rotate smoothly in the world merchant fleet.
