Yang Ming Marine Transport chairman, Cheng Cheng-mount disclosed that with more ships joining the company’s fleet, recruiting more seafarers is a priority.
He said that competition for manpower is keen as Taiwan’s burgeoning offshore wind industry has seen a good number of seafarers being recruited to man wind turbine installation vessels.
Cheng was speaking at the Taipei Shipowners’ Association’s members’ meeting on 4 May.
He said, “The world is facing a shortage of seafarers. Coupled with the rise of offshore wind power generation worldwide, many seafarers have been poached by this sector. Yang Ming’s main goal this year is to actively recruit seafarers. We’re taking delivery of five ships so demand for crewing is significant and we don’t have a specific number of seafarers to hire. However, we’re cooperating with maritime institutions to cultivate talents in the maritime industry.
Cheng Cheng-mount added, “Covid-19 is still spreading and when one person is diagnosed with it, the entire ship and the rest of the crew have to be quarantined. This will only compound the manpower insufficiency.”
To cut reliance on fossil fuels amid a global decarbonisation trend, Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-Wen, engineered a National green shift soon after her first election victory in 2016, promoting wind- and solar-powered generation while reducing coal-fired generation and nuclear power.
Cheng noted that he remains optimistic about Yang Ming’s financial performance this year, even as freight rates have softened due to blank sailings amid Shanghai’s lockdown.
“We have seen signs of easing congestion in various ports and this is a good sign as ships can load and unload quickly. This will also help in the return of empty containers and therefore alleviating the equipment shortage,” he pointed out.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
