Management fees “must rise”

SHIPOWNERS can expect to pay more for shipmanagement according to Ole Stene, President of the ship managers association InterManager.

In an InterManager statement he says that ship owners must realise that shipmanagement fees need to increase otherwise the majority of professional managers will become reluctant to take on more ships for management. Claiming that ship owners still had to recognise the valuable role that third party managers play in today’s shipping industry, Mr Stene complains that owners still “did not want to pay the fees that managers’ deserve for taking care of their assets”. He adds “I have not seen much improvement in the management fee structure since it first started to be debated in the media and when you see how the shipping market has improved coupled with the concerns we have on recruiting and manning and taking care of the asset value of the ships, we are surprised owners are not prepared to share their fortune with us in taking care of their ships.” Despite this reticence on the part of the owners, he claims it is inevitable that fees will rise and that owners will start to realise they have to invest in manning but also in paying for the management services they are receiving.
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