Crewing costs likely to double next year
Ship operators are being warned to expect higher crewing costs next year as pandemic measures and challenges in carrying out crew changes push prices higher.
Henrik Jensen, managing director of Danica Crewing Specialists, has analysed recent crew costs and reports that each crew change is costing an extra US$2 000 – doubling the price since last year – and is advising ship operators to set aside additional funds in next year’s budgets.
His comments come at a time when maritime industry representatives and seafarer unions are expressing concern at the reluctance by some charterers to allow vessels to detour to enable crew changes to take place during their voyage.
“Airfares have risen significantly compared to 12 months ago and flights are still difficult to book in many parts of the world due to reduced timetables and last-minute changes or cancellations. Our analysis does not include vessel deviation and delay costs for redirecting vessels to ports where crew changes are allowed, and lost charter revenue. However, vessel deviations caused only for the purpose of crew changes are rare today as more ports are open for crew changes.”
He predicts that crew scheduling will not return to normal until mid-2021 at the earliest.