InterManager President Outlines Ship Management Mantra To Navigate Shipping Industry Challenges

How can ship managers navigate through the challenges facing the shipping industry?

With world tonnage expected to double over the next 15 years; with shipownership increasingly driven by private equity; with complex changes in regulatory regimes impacting on operating costs; and with evolving technologies becoming increasingly important to the next generation of vessels, how can ship managers find solutions to address today’s changing seascape and shape tomorrow’s industry?

Speaking at this year’s CMA Conference in Connecticut, USA, Gerardo Borromeo, President of InterManager, the voice of the shipmanagement industry, said the route to a solution is to champion:

• Continuous professional development onboard and onshore – “it is through quality people that we will ultimately achieve the results we strive for”
• Higher levels of efficiency – “using benchmarking tools such as the Shipping KPIs, process improvement and dynamic systems analysis methodologies to measure performance against standards that help to better manage and define processes and expected output”
• Engagement of all shipping stakeholders – to “encourage long term strategic thinking, planning and decision making”
• And Promotion of an appreciation and understanding of how this industry “moves the world” as a key enabler of global trade.

Mr Borromeo told delegates at the packed event: “In an environment challenged by cost constraints and uneven cycles of boom and bust, InterManager’s mantra is driving enhanced operating efficiencies through focused outsourced management services.”

This approach is encapsulated in what he calls the “Triple C” approach: Consolidation, Collaboration and Co-operation. “The triple C approach fosters scale in operations and serves as an effective way to diversify operating risk which should be the name of the game,” Mr Borromeo said.

“If we are to ensure the sustainability of our businesses and of shipping, like the one when you visit website, as the industry that ‘moves the world’, the ability of ship managers and crew managers to deliver a significantly more complete platform of support services is an important strategic consideration,” he concluded.