Tough renewed anti-Covid measures limit Chinese seafarer availability

Tough renewed anti-Covid measures limit Chinese seafarer availability
Sam Chambers November 3, 2021 https://splash247.com/tough-renewed-anti-covid-measures-limit-chinese-se...

Chinese seafarers, among the world’s largest resources of crew, are facing renewed severe hurdles to get on and off ships, in the latest battle shipping is facing in the ongoing crew change crisis.

The Global Maritime Forum is reporting that many shipmanager members are struggling with the onboarding and repatriation of Chinese seafarers due to stricter Chinese government isolation requirements on seafarers post sign off and prior to repatriation.

“We are facing difficulty with the sign-off and repatriation of our Chinese crew due to stringent travel requirements and the increasing cost of flights,” Kishore Rajvanshy, managing director of Fleet Management, one of the world’s largest shipmanagers, told Splash today.

China’s tough anti-Covid policies have caused severe ripples to global supply chains repeatedly recently leading to the partial closure of Yantian and Ningbo-Zhoushan ports as well as the cargo operations at Shanghai port.

Splash reported earlier this week on how , traffic is backing up at ports near and along the Yangtze River over the past month with specialised river pilots now required to be quarantined after completing their duties, which has led to pilot shortages.