With the resumption of production and work amid Covid-19 pandemic, shipowners in China are seeing the improvement in business, however, crew change has become a major concern.
IMO secretary-general Kitack Lim has repeated a call for urgent action on crew change ahead of the UN General Assembly or face ships no longer being able to operate safely worsening the economic crisis.
While much about Covid-19 is yet to unfold, it’s reasonable to assume that the pandemic’s most profound and poignant legacy in the shipping industry is the crew change crisis.
Singapore is establishing a floating Crew Facilitation Centre (CFC) with on-site medical provisions, as well as a SGD1m ($736,000) Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience (SG-STAR) Fund.
The world’s largest container line Maersk is spending a “lot of money” to try and fix the crew change problem but still has one-third of seafarers have been onboard longer than allowed under their contracts.
Crew change and travel during the Covid-19 pandemic has become the top issue facing the maritime industries. Crew change is possible, but it is a complex process.
With crew change in the spotlight in Hong Kong following a third wave of the Covid-19 virus the shipowners and liner shipping associations have written to the local press stressing the vital role seafarers play as key workers and urging support...
Just two weeks after announcing the resumption of crew change Dubai has seen the exchange of some 3,000 seafarers.
Intercargo has repeated industry calls for urgent action on crew change, even as restrictions go back up again.