Ship operating costs seminar: Current and future trends –
OpCost 2011, the Moore Stephens Shipping Group’s unique benchmarking report shows operating costs on the increase, reversing the trend of the previous year when they had fallen for the first time in eight years.
Oversupply of vessels, depressed freight rates, rising bunker costs, vessel value impairment, reduced access to funding, and increased regulatory pressure are some of the challenges faced by the industry.
The seminar reviewed the current state of the shipping market, the results from OpCost 2011 as well as offering some insight into the future.
The speakers covered:
Overview of shipping markets & future trends was presented by Dr Martin Stopford, Clarksons and OpCost 2011 was delivered by Richard Greiner, Moore Stephens
Worth noted the following:
- Three themes for the 2010s: shipyard overcapacity; energy costs; and the environment. All are correlated, and will lead to a renewed focus on costs.
- Shipbuilding overcapacity will mean cheaper ships, greater willingness to do innovative work; and lower ship earnings will push the strategic focus towards cost control.
- High energy costs will push up the bunker prices. But society has only accepted this at a “macro” level; micro-decision-making is only partially committed (remember the 1980s).
- Environmental pressure because shipping has an oversized carbon footprint, HFO is super dirty etc and it’s a growth industry. But commitment at a macro level is not reflected in microdecision-making.
- Shipbuilding technology very mature so no magic solutions. Cutting energy costs and carbon footprint involve compromise & difficult choices: – lower speed; modified design; multiple fuel systems (e.g. LNG) all possible.
- Cost management will have a much greater urgency than in the last decade.
Let us see your comments and evaluation, as the outlook is a bit blur…
