The current Covid 19 [CV19] pandemic has spawned a ‘Social Pandemic’, we, who, for many decades, closely follow ‘Merchant Shipping’, have never seen before. It is a situation of government leaders deciding not to allow crew transits from ships to shore for egress to other nations; for CV 19 contamination reasons. Evidencing much ineptness of logical thought, these government leaders disregard the facts of crews being isolated during their voyages and are NOT carrying CV 19 with them. These ‘situations’ offer: “The crews are not contaminated; people on shore may well be. Ergo, the crews face the risk of contracting CV 19 [not the other way around].”
Furthering the ‘Contamination Concept’ we wonder how many “Ship Chandlers” outfits have been closely tested and or quarantined; this, for their interfaces with both ships’ crew-members and supplies coming in-bound off the ships, goods for later re-sale to other ships, to their organizations? We have heard of none. Perhaps because they are ‘Locals’, governments’ Ports Authorities have deemed them “In-contaminable’?
Going ‘up the ladder towards the bridge’ there are many “middle-men” who are responsible for ships’ crew’s employment. It appears to us they have done next to nothing, on a macro-level, to put pressure to bear on their governments to de-escalate the ‘Slave-Labor (Voluntary, turned to Involuntary Servitude) being ‘stuck aboard ship’ for months.
Upon the bridge, ship-owners, bankers, investors, et al have acted with ‘Effete Dynamism‘ in solving this crisis to crews. As the adage states: “What goes around, will come around.” A dearth of enthusiastic crew members makes for a greater potential of: Cargo mis-handlings; Crew Injuries; Fires; and Sailing Mishaps.
It is our opinion that it is well likely that Maritime Insurance costs will rise, as maladies start occurring at a greater rate in the industry. As many crew members decide to change careers or retire earlier, “newbies” who enter the business will make a greater incidence of errors; leading to many of the aforementioned problems. There is no substitute for experience. As International Businessmen, we would think that at the present moment, many Insurers in Hamilton, London, New York City and others, would be taking a serious look at potential risk exposures brought about mainly through ineptness of decisions and dearth of training.
The other adjoining group that should be closely reviewed are the ‘Ship Registrations’. We have not seen a great deal of progress by any of them to conjoin with each other and quickly solve this ‘Humanitarian Issue’ for ship crews. “Why Not”, we ask. Is it that managements of such registries ‘do not have a clue’ to solving problems? They do have a responsibility to regulate those vessels under their purview.
Due to “Supply Chain” conundrums, we find it amazing that the world Main Stream Media, has largely ignored this vital industry’s current dilemma. If goods cannot be transferred from the manufacturer to the wholesaler; then, goods from the wholesale to the retailer to the customers, are a mere hologram. Who outside of “Bloomberg” clearly presents this dilemma to the public? We, as analysts of all types of shipping everywhere, are familiar; the “Men and Women of the world” are not. They will be irate when they cannot locate that which has NOT been shipped to their favorite stores. Is not this subject newsworthy?
Reality: The severity of a Pandemic is exacerbated by multiple very poor decisions, by many, in various ‘arenas’, that have portrayed themselves as omniscient; their decisions are substantively ‘Chalcopyrite’ [Fool’s Gold].
Reference: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-pandemic-shipping-labor-violations/?srnd=premium