SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

SHIPPING AND SHIP MANAGEMENT
It has been an “up-and-down”, year for
German shipping, if generally a better
one than some had predicted a year ago.
Three major owners have had difficulties,
just to remind them how fickle the market
remains, as all hands come to grips with the
serious shortage of shipping personnel.
GERMANY
Generally, framework conditions for
German shipowners have worsened.
Bunker prices have gone through the roof,
rates cause concern and experts still differ
on whether the influx of new ships will
mean saturation or not.
Merkel assured delegates
Worries that the government of Angela
Merkel might not be as totally devoted to
the maritime sector as was her predecessor
Gerhard Schroeder have, at least, been dispelled.
Merkel turned out with a full
entourage in Hamburg at the Fifth National
Maritime Conference in December to
demonstrate Berlin’s continued support for
the industry.
She assured delegates Berlin would
remain a reliable and accessible partner of
the maritime sector and keep promises
made by her predecessor. That specifically
included sticking to the popular tonnage
tax system. Prior to her re-dedication,
many Germans had spoken of “uncertainty
in the maritime sector” and had expressed
fears Berlin support might be waning and
that the government might change or abolish
tonnage tax. A federal audit office
report had in fact concluded the tax had
cost Berlin a billion Euros in revenue in
2004 without halting flagging out.
Ready to flag back
Merkel paid tribute to shipping companies
who had, in the two years up to the end of
2005, increased the number of Germanflagged
vessels by 100 to 400 in return for
government support for shipping. In
response to her pledge of continued support,
the shipowners said they were ready
to continue flagging back and would
increase the number of ships returning to
the German flag by another hundred to
500 by 2008 and to 600 by 2010.
It has been a difficult
but satisfactory year
for Hamburg Süd.
Up-and-down German sector
tackles personnel crisis
German shipping
companies will continue
to benefit from
the container boom
and make big profits.
The latest of many shipping companies
to flag back has been Reederei NSB, which
has just brought home 13 ships. NSB, one
of Germany’s biggest owners/ship managers,
said the 8,073 TEU Ever Champion
and twelve earlier ships were all Contifinanced.
Berlin’s re-dedication to tonnage tax has
not been the only thing to reassure
shipowners doubting government intentions
of late. Another has been the
appointment, just before the Hamburg
conference started, of Parliamentary State
Secretary Dagmar Wöhrl as Germany’s first
woman Maritime Co-ordinator.
Merkel’s earlier failure to fill that job, a
56 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 21, 2007