The financial crisis and a staggering drop in freight rates of up to 90 percent over the past five months in the global shipping market were the main topics of today’s meeting of the largest Croatian shipowners in international transport, members of the Mare Nostrum association, and the State Secretary for the Sea, Branko Bačić.
Croatian shipowners, emphasized Stjepan Papić, president of the Mare Nostrum association, will declare this year, thanks to good revenues from the first half of the year and from the past four years, the most successful so far for Croatian shipping, which may help cover potential unprofitable operations in 2009. – If the crisis lasts only in 2009, Croatian shipowners will survive, but if it lasts three or four years, it will have a catastrophic impact on the shipping business. If we manage to maintain freight rates for cargo transport at half the prices from the beginning of the year, we would be satisfied – said Papić.
In October, the situation in international shipping was such that shipowners, carriers of bulk cargo such as grains, iron ore, and coal, recorded a drop in freight rates of 93 percent compared to May, while tankers, carriers of liquid cargo, saw a drop of 20 to 30 percent. As for domestic shipowners engaged in the transport of bulk cargo in international transport, despite the crisis in recent months and the leasing of ships for cargo transport at the brink of profitability, there is no talk of dismissing sailors. – At this moment, ships are sailing at the edge of profitability, but as long as the ship is in operation, there are no indications of dismissing seafarers, at least as far as domestic shipowners are concerned. Namely, the vast majority of seafarers sail on foreign ships – stated the State Secretary for the Sea, Branko Bačić. (Marija Čekada)
