Mark Charman is uniquely well-placed to give readers a glimpse of what next year holds for the shipping and offshore markets. As CEO of recruitment group Faststream he’s able to assess the mood of the industry ahead of time via the ebbs and flows of people moving to different jobs. Here’s one bold prediction he’s making for 2016: we’ll see plenty of seafarers without jobs.
“With a declining offshore sector, a flat dry sector and overcapacity in liner we are going to see for the first time in a long time unemployed seafarers,” he tells Maritime CEO, adding: “The common theme in shipping for the next 12 months is going to be change. And there is going to be a lot of it.”
Many in offshore will struggle to survive, Charman says, with consolidation all but inevitable.
Tankers should prosper however, while Charman warns that with so many LNG and LPG newbuilds coming into service over the next 12 months there will be a shortage of suitably experienced and competent officers.
“We will see big wage inflation in gas shipping,” Charman says.
Another trend set to continue, according to the Faststream boss is the shifting of back offices to cheaper locations.
“Companies will continue to look at their operations and seek cost savings by moving their back office functions to lower cost locations like the Philippines,” Charman concludes.
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