MarAd: U.S.-flag operators still face labor wage disadvantages

MarAd: U.S.-flag operators still face labor wage disadvantages    U.S.-flag vessel operators continue to face significant labor wage disadvantages compared to foreign-flag ship crews in the international trades.
   “Once freed from legal restrictions, we believe costs become the vessel owner’s primary determinant of the nationality of the crew complement,” said the U.S. Maritime Administration in a report released May 15. “With few exceptions, only the lowest cost nationalities were employed as unlicensed seafarers in the competitive U.S. trades.”
   The MarAd study, “Foreign-flag Crewing Practices,” reviewed the nationalities and sizes of the crews of non-U.S.-flag cargo vessels calling at the United States. In addition to its own data, MarAd relied on vessel entries recorded with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2000. MarAd also used information from the Baltic and International Maritime Council and the International Shipping Federation.
   The agency’s study found that 143 countries supplied crewmembers to foreign-flag vessels calling at U.S. ports. However, about 10 nationalities made up nearly 75 percent of these crews.
   These predominant crew nationalities for foreign-flag ships, according the study, are Greek, Ukrainian, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Croatian, Myanmar, Korean and Polish.
   The study also found that crew sizes were largely determined by vessel type.
   “While crew selection moves towards lower cost nationalities, improved vessel design has lowered the number of seafarers necessary to crew the newer vessels in the fleet,” the study said. “Average crew sizes will continue to decrease as newer vessels are added to meet growing demand and/or replace older vessels that are scrapped.”
   The complete study is available from MarAd online at https://www.marad.dot.gov.