A crewing crisis: Cargo ship crews are stuck at sea

A crewing crisis: Cargo ship crews are stuck at sea
Jun 20th 2020

AS YOU READ this, over 60,000 cargo ships are on the high seas, laden with iPhones from China, dresses from Bangladesh, beef from Argentina, oil from the Gulf and much, much more. The industry likes to say that it is responsible for “90% of everything”. Indeed, its ships are the circulatory system of global commerce and their 1.2m merchant seamen its lifeblood. They enable nations to turn their comparative advantage into wealth. If they were to stop, much of humanity would soon begin to starve or freeze.

Throughout the covid-19 pandemic merchant seamen have kept working (see article). But they have been stuck on board. In a normal week around 50,000 finish their contracts and are relieved. The virus has cut that number to almost nothing. Over 250,000 mariners are stranded at sea, even though they are at least a month past the end of contracts that typically last three to nine months. more... https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/06/20/cargo-ship-crews-are-stuck-...