WANING INTEREST
Ship management service provider Fleet Management Limited, which operates in major ports across Asia, said the shortage is becoming more widespread.
“At the moment, we have about 8 per cent shortage of that, and this is predicted to grow to 10 per cent in the next five to 10 years,” said its CEO Rajalingam Subramaniam.
“Even with the current geopolitical scenarios, global trade is increasing,” he added.
This comes even as United States President Donald Trump’s tariff war severely disrupted global logistics and supply chains.
Much of the shipping industry operates out of public view, making its importance easy to overlook, industry watchers said.
“Shipping provides or moves more than 80 per cent of global trade,” said Rajalingam.
“There’s a growing need for manpower into this industry, but the pace of bridging the gap is not fast enough. It needs to move. It needs to accelerate faster.”
Industry players attributed one of the reasons for declining manpower to a waning interest in maritime careers.
Sean Tse, a final-year student at the Hong Kong Maritime Service Training Institute, said many of his classmates have dropped out of the two-year higher diploma programme in maritime studies.
The cohort shrank from 29 students in the first year to about 19 in the second year.
“The reason so many have left could be that some students, after a year, realised they are not sure about working in this industry and considered switching careers,” said Tse, whose ambition is to become a boat captain.
“Some students might develop personal relationships such as getting a girlfriend, and they worry that if they go to sea, they might lose their girlfriend,” added the 20-year-old.
“This makes them not want to pursue a maritime career.”
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