Overseas shipping companies open offices in India for recruiting seafarers
Close on the heels of Qatar Shipping, it is Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) PJSC to dock in India for undertaking their manning operations. Both secured their Recruitment & Placement of Seafarers licence (RPSL) from the Directorate General of Shipping, government of India the regulating body within a few days of each other last week.
Despite the raging fiscal storm more and more overseas shipping companies are looking at India for solution to overcome the marine officer’s shortage. By establishing their own offices in India they claim that they are improving their selection process whereby they would be able to have an open face to face dialogue with the officers and crew before making their selection.
Qatar Shipping which ranks amongst the top 30 companies in the world by market cap has seven ships. Besides, they have 9 LNGs from their joint venture and 6 LPGs through a joint venture with Qatar Transport Company and another with a Japanese company. Mr. Salem Abdulrahman Al-Wehaibi, Chairman Qatar Shipping stated, “We holds 15% share in Qatar Gas Company and have plans to acquire 70 LNGs within the next few years. This will make us the world’s biggest shipping company in terms of market capitalisation. Some LNGs will be of 80,000 cbm capacity.”
Gulf Energy Maritime which is rated among the top 10 independent product tanker owners in the world has 17 tankers comprising of product and chemical tankers. They too plan to expand dramatically in the coming years. Their Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ahmed Essa Hareb Al Falahi informed, “We want to continue 100 per cent in the Chemical and Product tankers trade and this will continue to remain our portfolio.”
“The problem lies in getting qualified seafarers,” Mr. Salem Al-Wehaibi said. “The purpose of establishing our own office in Mumbai is to improve our selection process. It will facilitate Indian seafarers to join us and work with us on a long term basis. We like to attract and retain talent. We also like to reward talent.”
Mr. Al Falahi on the other hand eulogized the Indian seafarers. “Indian seafarers are excellent mariners and I can confidently say that in time to come without Indian seafarers the shipping industry could come to a stand still. We have seafarers also from Philippines and Bangladesh who we find are also very good and hard working. But the reason for the Indian seafarers proving to be a big success in seafaring is that they are very focussed on rising up the ranks and becoming Chief Engineers and Captains. Yes, Indian seafarers have a lot of drive that is why we are now focusing so much on taking Indian crew.”