Seatrade-Maritime: Seafarers live the consequences of boardroom high-risk decisions

Published by Seatrade-Maritime

The role of the ship manager is changing with the impact that conflict has on the shipping industry and its seagoing workforce, according to Columbia Group.

Speaking on a panel at Marine Money Asia in Singapore Demetris Chrysostomou, Deputy Chief Executive of Columbia Group, said there were three main areas affecting shipping at the moment – the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea, and that these conflicts were looking more permanent rather than temporary.

As a result, the role of the ship manager was starting to change from one previously of safe and efficient management and manging budgets. “Now our role as a ship manager is to manage the uncertainty that is faced by shipowners, including in an of these main three areas.”

When it comes to sailing through these high-risk regions it is not a decision that rests with Columbia but rather the shipowner and group of stakeholders of which the ship manager is part of.

“The decisions to trade in these high-risk areas, or transit these high-risk areas, are usually made in the boardroom by various stakeholders, including the ship managers. When we sit in a boardroom we see a dot on a computer screen, but I think we need to take a step back and remember that the dot represents 20 – 25 seafarers, and behind those seafarers are 20 – 25 families, and all those people rely on the stakeholders to make the right decisions,” Chrysostomou said.

“Also to put that in perspective the stakeholders are in a position that don’t live the consequences, those 20 -25 seafarers live the actual consequences.”

As a manager he said, “Everything we do starts for us with crew, and that should be the cornerstone of all the decisions that we make and complexities that we manage.”

Where vessels and their crew do have to go into high-risk areas it was important to the manager to that seafarers trust and know that senior management is monitoring the situation 24/7 and is available at any time to change decisions.

Speaking to Seatrade Maritime News Chrysostomou was clear that no seafarer with Columbia would be forced into sailing in a high-risk area and they can be signed off. “There are a lot of seafarers not willing to work on these trades,” he said, noting that the risk was not a theoretical one and hundreds of ships had been attacked and crew had lost their lives.

If a seafarer does sign off from working in a high-risk area Chrysostomou said they would re-assigned to another vessel. “We really look need to look after our people.”

While some crew are not willing to the take risks of sailing in high-risk zones he noted that in the industry as whole there were seafarers who “see it as an opportunity” to earn more money by accepting assignments on board in such areas.