Philippines top supplier of seafarers on international merchant ships

Philippines top supplier of seafarers on international merchant ships
V. Sajeev Kumar May 23 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/philippines-top-s...

The Philippines has emerged as the biggest supplier of seafarers on international merchant ships followed by China, Indonesia, Russia and the Ukraine. A research report prepared by BIMCO (Baltic and International Maritime Council) says of the 1,647,500 seafarers, the Philippines is the leading supplier of ratings (low-/semi-skilled maritime workforce). But China leads in the number of supervisory positions, followed by the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Russia.

However, India with 12 per cent of the world’s population has just 8 per cent of the seafarers’ market, while the Philippines with two per cent of the population has grabbed about 20 per cent global share, the report said.

India ended the year 2017 with 154,349 seafarers engaged on merchant ships, compared to 143,940 in 2016. Of this, 71,777 are officers, while 83,172 are ratings, accounting for 97,937 jobs on the nautical side and 56,412 on the engineering side. The BIMCO report predicted that an additional 147,500 officers would be required by the year 2025 to serve the ongoing expansion of the world merchant navy fleet.

India’s leading maritime associations – MASSA (Maritime Association of Shipowners Shipmanagers and Agents) and FOSMA (The Foreign Shipowners Representatives and Ship Managers Association) have jointly undertaken a benchmarking exercise to rate the quality of Indian maritime institutes to enhance the employment prospects and global share of Indian seafarers in the years to come.

The rating exercise was done by the Mumbai-based research agency, IIRE. India has about 134 maritime institutes, of which 81 conduct pre-sea training courses for trainee officers/cadets and trainee ratings, and 53 offer post-sea training, a specialised professional programme for full-fledged officers in both the nautical and engineering streams.

Both MASSA and FOSMA intend to conduct such benchmarking exercises at regular intervals to monitor the country’s maritime training infrastructure and thus continue to stimulate the growth of the country’s maritime sector, said Prashant Rangnekar, Chairman, MAASA.
Published on May 23, 2018