Malaysian shipping industry is facing a crewing
crisis the seriousness of which does not seem to have registered as
a priority by the industry given the fact that the current deficit of
about 10,000 could leap-fold to unprecedented levels in the next
couple of years. The global shipping industry must come to grips
quickly with the realities and the concerns on the emerging
shortages and the demand for well-trained and experienced
seafarers as the biggest challenge facing the shipping industry
itself. The worldwide population of seafarers serving on
internationally trading merchant ships today is estimated to be in
the order of 400,000 officers and 825,000 ratings. As far as ratings
are concerned they are, in the majority recruited from developing
countries especially Malaysia. A staggering 20,000 new crew at an
average of 15 crews per ship will be needed to meet the demand
annually and the number needed could be potentially more if
attrition from those currently employees are also taken into
account. The issue is not only the concern over the projected
shortage of seafarers. There is need also to ensure that the
seafarers are not burdened by the spate of new rules and
regulations that are impacting on ship operations and
management and how the human factor is accounted for and
dealt with in these regulations. The seriousness could be clearly
reflected when the number of ships currently on order worldwide
totalling about 8,000 vessels with deliveries averaging 2,000
annually over the next three years and relate it to the demand for
crew for each of these ships. Given the current rate of growth of
the shipping industry, there is no easy solution or a quick-fix to
the crewing crisis that could overwhelm the industry.