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International accountant and shipping cons[ds_preview]ultant Moore Stephens says that operating costs in the shipping industry have fallen by an average of 2.4% in 2015. This is the fourth successive overall year-on-year reduction in such costs.

According to the company all categories of operating costs were down on those for the previous 12-month period. This suggests continued pragmatic management of costs by ship owners and operators, as well as a reduction in active trading for some owners as a result of the prolonged worldwide economic downturn.

Moore Stephens’ benchmarking tool OpCoast 2016 reveals that that total operating costs for the tanker, bulker and container ship sectors were all down in 2015, the financial year covered by the study. On a year-on-year basis, the tanker index was down by 4 points, or 2.2 %, while the bulker index fell by 6 points, or 3.6 %.

The container ship index, meanwhile, was also down by 6 points, or 3.7 %. The corresponding figures in last year’s OpCost study showed falls of 2 points in both the tanker and container ship index, and of 1 point in the bulker index. There was a 1.2 % overall average fall in 2015 crew costs, compared to the 2014 figure, which itself was 0.1 % down on 2013. By way of comparison, the 2008 report revealed a 21 % increase in this category.

Tanker

Tankers overall experienced a fall in crew costs of 1.3 % on average, compared to the 0.4 % fall recorded in 2014. All categories of tankers reported a reduction in crew costs for 2015 with the exception of Panamaxes and VLCCs, which recorded increases of 1.4% and 1.2% respectively, compared to reductions for 2014 of 2.2 % and 0.6 %. The most significant reduction in tanker crew costs for 2015 was the 3.6% recorded by Product Tankers.

Bulker

For bulkers, meanwhile, the overall average fall in crew costs in 2015 was 1.1 %, having stabilised 12 months ago at 2013 levels. The operators of Handysize Bulkers paid 2.3 % more on crew costs than in 2014, but the operators of other categories of bulker paid less, in the case of Panamax Bulkers to the tune of 3.2 %.

Container

Expenditure on crew costs was down 3.3% in the container ship sector, having stabilised in 2014 at the previous year’s level. The biggest fall in crew costs in this category was the 3.6% reduction recorded for vessels of between 2,000 and 6,000 TEU.