Ships & Shipping editorial - March 2011

Not more than a year ago many people in the industry were muttering in their drinks that 13,000 or 14,000TEU container ships were unjustifiably and uneconomically large.

I wonder what they think now. The world’s largest container operator, Maersk, which is also delightfully profitable, has just announced an order for ten 18,000TEU ships from Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. It also holds options for as many as 20 more.

At US$180 million each, that is a big investment but, compared with the cost per container slot of, say, a 2,500TEU ship it is peanuts. These ships are all about economies of scale. In that they are no different from 5,000-passenger cruise ships or 300,000DWT tankers and bulkers.

Work Boat World editorial - March 2011

With the long running and very strong booms in the construction of tugs and offshore service vessels coming to their inevitable ends, it is interesting to contemplate which will be the next exciting work boat sectors.

Two of the more depressed sectors of late have been fishing boats and ferries. I have a feeling they are where we will see some positive signs in the near future.

Having been attacked from practically every direction for the past decade or so, the fishing industry in the developed world has shrunk to about a quarter of its previous size in terms of numbers of boats.

Ausmarine editorial - March 2011

The past decade’s massive attrition in the Australian and New Zealand fishing industry has resulted in some seven thousand surplus commercial fishing boats.

Thanks to equal measures of clever green lobbying and bureaucratic bastardry in both countries, around seventy percent of the boats that were active in the nineties have no possibility of further commercial fishing activity.

Work Boat World / Ausmarine / Ships and Shipping editorial - March 2011

There is a traditional and very true English saying: “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Recently, Sir Richard Branson, the English cheap flights entrepreneur, broke that rule very dramatically with his attack on the shipping industry and, most particularly, its energy inefficiencies and excess emissions.

While no one in the shipping industry would claim that the industry is perfectly clean or, even, that it is doing all it can to reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency, they are at least trying and they do not need to be informed of their “crimes” by an airline operator. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Work Boat World / Ausmarine editorial - February 2011

Workboat owners, operators, suppliers and regulators from at least35 countries are planning to gather in Singapore for the first three days of March to participate in our ASIAN WORK BOAT 2011 event.

We at Baird Maritime are pleased and proud to be organising our seventh maritime event at Suntec in Singapore from March 1 to 3, 2011.