The campaign calls on governments, industry and IMO, supported by ILO and other international organizations, to take specific actions, within their areas of influence, to increase the recruitment of seafarers to tackle the problem.

A recent report issued by maritime industry analysts Drewry Shipping Consultants assessed the current shortfall of officers in the global shipping fleet to be some 34,000, against a total requirement of 498,000. Moreover, based on Drewry’s fleet growth projections, and the assumption that officer supply will only increase at the current rate, the report predicts that, by 2012, the officer shortfall will have grown to 83,900.

“As everyone in shipping is aware, the global shortage of seafarers, especially officers, has already reached significant proportions and is now a source of genuine concern to all involved in the industry,” said IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, speaking at the launch of the campaign.

The shipping industry can provide the basis for a fulfilling and satisfying life-long career and the problem is one of recruitment, rather than retention in the profession, he added, noting that this required a shift in the public perception of shipping, particularly amongst the young.

“I have long been an advocate of the need to promote the industry and improve its public image. Outside the industry itself, the wider public has little conscious perception of the vital role that shipping plays in everyday life and this, clearly, needs to change,” Mr. Mitropoulos said, adding that all the organizations associated with the ‘Go to Sea!’ campaign were united in wanting to address concerns over the future supply of quality manpower to the shipping industry and in taking positive steps for that purpose.

Amongst specific calls for action in the campaign document, the shipping industry is urged to take the lead and more can to promote itself through the media, in particular the electronic media. The industry should continue to provide support for and endorse campaigns aimed at improving its image and use some key industry figures as examples of career progression. It is also urged to do more to make life on board and away from home more akin to the life enjoyed by others ashore; to encourage women to work in the seafaring profession; and to promote the industry at non maritime-related events.

Governments are asked to give greater prominence to the maritime perspective, by doing more to support and encourage the shipping industry in any initiatives it takes to enhance its image and to remove adverse actions that may damage that image. Maritime training facilities need to be resourced adequately (both in financial and human resource terms) to ensure a supply of competent seafarers. Governments could do much to promote a wider take-up of a sea career through, for example, recognition of sea service instead of compulsory military service, training of jobless persons and promoting the career for women.

IMO itself will develop a page on its public website highlighting the types of career paths available to seafarers, through links to industry sites. While on missions abroad, where practicable, the Secretary-General will visit maritime and non-maritime training facilities and seafarer organizations to express support and address both maritime and non-maritime Government departments to promote shipping and seafaring. And the ILO, which promotes the objective of decent work for all, has adopted several instruments directly relevant to the campaign and will support it in every way possible (source: IMO.org).

The way business is conducted has changed significantly since the advent of Inmarsat, with an emphasis on speed, just-in-time delivery and always-on communications. Satellite communications is one of the underpinnings of the commercial shipping industry, allowing the word “global” to become a meaningful adjective to the word “economy”.

What exactly is the maritime market for satellite services and how big is it? What types of satellite services are available? What applications are fueling demand for bandwidth? And what does the future hold for maritime satcoms?

Satcoms on the High Seas

The maritime market for satellite services includes a number of distinct segments, including: commercial shipping, cruise lines, energy, fishing, yachts and military, each with a distinct set of needs, and according to the “The Comsys Maritime VSAT Report,” released in May, the market generated $400 million in revenues in 2007. Commercial shipping, cruise lines and energy market segments are the three largest market segments by revenue and by bandwidth consumed, and each has shown significant growth throughout the last five years. The uptake of satellite services in the fishing industry is growing but bandwidth demands are not nearly as large, while the global yachting market has shown a steady appetite for satellite services even when the soft U.S. market is factored in.

Inmarsat was formed in 1979 to provide commercial satellite services to the maritime industry. The organization was consortium of 80-plus seafaring nations and operated a constellation of satellites which blanketed the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans with L-band coverage. Originally, Inmarsat’s core services were circuit switched voice and Telex, but as application connectivity grew, the organization introduced new services providing higher data throughputs. Inmarsat was privatized in 1999, and the new Inmarsat has rolled out services to meet customer demand but the company faces intense competition in the maritime market it once dominated.

Traditionally, the industry has been slow to adopt new technologies, however new business dynamics are forcing the entire market to adjust. L-band service providers Iridium, Thuraya, and Globalstar have launched services aimed at maritime users and have begun to eat into Inmarsat’s market share. The development of stabilized platforms, which allow VSAT antennas to remain locked on a satellite even though the ships they are attached to are rolling or pitching from side to side, allowed even more competition, and now Inmarsat is facing a new generation of competitors that are providing C- and Ku-band VSAT offerings.

One of the largest hurdles the maritime industry faces is hiring and retaining qualified crews. Going to sea has always had a romantic connotation, but Generation X is not as eager to live on a ship for weeks at a time without any contact with the outside world. Neither are passengers on cruise ships. No longer are they happy to get away from it all, as vacationers want to surf the Web and make cell phone calls between ports of call. “One of the underlying drivers in our market is the need to retain trained crews,” says Michiel Meijer, maritime marketing manager, Stratos. “There is a shortage of trained crews and shipping companies have realized that morale and entertainment is very important to employee retention. Seamen want the ability to call home and talk with loved ones and send and receive e-mails. This is driving usage and demand is still growing.”

“Crew retention and moral has become a huge issue for shipping companies,” says Carl Novello, senior technical manager at CapRock. “One popular trend is the deployment of picocells on ships. The picocells connect to broadband VSATs, and the cell phone traffic is backhauled back to shore via satellite. The picocells allow crew members to use their existing cell phones to call home. In the future, we may be able to use the picocells to gather data remotely for [supervisory control and data acquisition] and asset monitoring applications.”

Another driving factor is automation. Remote monitoring systems for navigation and engines allow shipping companies to keep track of a ship’s health remotely. Two decades ago a commercial shipping vessel would go to sea with a crew of 40. Today the number is half of that. The Maersk Emma, one of the shipping company’s newest container transport vessels capable of hauling 30,000 containers, only requires a crew of 15,” says Meijer. “The second major driver is remote management. Shipping firms must find ways to do more with fewer people. Navigation systems and engine monitoring systems allow expert systems on shore to support the crew. But these systems require at least 64K of bandwidth and IP always-on connectivity,” he says.

The increasing use of automation makes a ship’s information technology infrastructure and network connectivity extremely important. Advanced out-of-band network management systems such as the Envoy system made by Uplogix allow a shipping line to manage a ship’s entire infrastructure while it is at sea, even if the main VSAT link is down. The ability to monitor satellite modems, stabilized antennas, routers, switches, servers and PBXs for anomalies, upgrade operating systems, and reboot equipment automatically improves network uptime and minimizes the amount of information technology training for crews. “Shipping companies are rolling out [enterprise resource planning] applications, which require constant connectivity,” says Novello. “In essence, they require an office at sea. These applications allow for administration duties and purchasing to be done while the ship is at sea.”

Shipping companies are not the only fleet managers faced with employee retention and moral. Navies around the world face the same issue. Cell phone and Internet connectivity, as well as marine TVRO systems, are being deployed to improve the quality of life for sailors.
Stabilized VSAT Antennas

Stabilized antenna systems are a critical component to most maritime satellite services. Although there are different designs, antennas generally are gimbaled so they can twist and turn in multiple directions at once. Using inputs from a gyroscope or GPS compass to give it perspective, a stabilized platform makes constant adjustments to keep the antenna pointed at the satellite. Saltwater and electronic components are not a match made in heaven, so a radome is employed to keep waves, spray and mist off the antenna system.

“Shipping companies are rolling out [enterprise resource planning] applications, which require constant connectivity. In essence, they require an office at sea.”

— Novello, CapRock

Sea Tel is the established market leader in stabilized VSAT platforms, according to Comsys, with nearly 72 percent market share. Orbit Marine of Israel is the second largest supplier of stabilized VSAT antennas with more than 17 percent of the market. The remaining 11 percent of the market is made up of a number of companies, including Schlumberger, the global oil field service firm that manufactures stabilized antennas for its own use. Comsys noted that shipping companies demand service centers in ports worldwide, creating a significant barrier to entry for competitors. With the possible exception of Schlumberger which does not generally market its antennas outside the company, look for Sea Tel and Orbit to continue to dominate the market for stabilized antennas.

Finding room on a ship, barge, ferry or drilling rig to securely mount a stabilized VSAT antenna system, which might be as much as 12 feet in diameter depending on its frequency and antenna size, always is a challenge. One intriguing new competitor to arrive on the scene is KVH, which produces the TracPhone V7, which uses a 60-centimeter stabilized antenna. The antenna uses spread spectrum technology and KVH has partnered with ViaSat and SES Americom to deliver a turnkey service known as mini-VSAT Broadband Service. The service covers coastal regions and will be expanded in the near future to cover important shipping lanes. KVH’s antenna requires just two men to lift, while competitors systems require a crane to lift hardware in place, thereby mandating that VSAT systems only be installed while a ship is in port for an extended period.
Service Providers

As the market for maritime satellite services has expanded the number of service providers has risen as well. Comsys estimates that 20 percent of nearly 150,000 vessels identified are untapped potential customers for VSAT services, and the number of VSAT operators who now target the maritime market has grown from around 10 a few years ago to more 90 today.

In 2007, Inmarsat launched its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) services, and in a move that surprised some, chose to target the land market first rather than the maritime market. “With Inmarsat increasingly aware of the competition it was facing from VSAT services, it was therefore a big surprise to us that, when making the decision on its fourth-generation satellite system, the organization decided to concentrate its service and development on land-based services,” says Simon Bull, senior analyst at U.K.-based Comsys and author of “The Comsys Maritime VSAT Report.” “With approximately 60 percent of its revenues derived from maritime and one of its great differentiators being its global service it almost beggars belief that the company decided not to provide a maritime version of BGAN nor a global service, preferring to concentrate on the land masses. The magnitude of this mistake has only just begun to be corrected.” Leveraging its new constellation of I-4 satellites, Inmarsat introduced FleetBroadband in 2008. Two different types of terminals are available; one supports IP connectivity up to 284 kilobits per second (kbps) while the second supports speeds up to 432 kbps.

In October, Iridium introduced a competitive service called OpenPort and touts the service’s global coverage, including north and south poles. OpenPort’s shipboard equipment uses an omnidirectional antenna, which eliminates the need for an expensive stabilized antenna. The service can deliver IP connections between 9.6 kbps to 128 kbps. Thuraya provides maritime services on a regional basis including the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

During the early 1980s, Inmarsat was the sovereign of the seas, charging $10 per minute for voice and telex connectivity. The energy industry consumed large amounts of Inmarsat services and monthly bills exceeding $30,000 per drilling rig were common. Energy companies were quick to adopt VSAT services using stabilized antennas. Over the last 20 years, companies such as CapRock, Schlumberger, Stratos and Broadpoint have expanded beyond the Gulf of Mexico to provide communication services. With a global reach, these companies expanded into commercial shipping and other maritime markets. Conversely, Ship Equip, Vizada (formerly Telenor) and MTN began offering broadband VSAT services to commercial shipping and cruise lines. As these companies grew, they expanded into other areas such as fishing and energy.

The impact of broadband VSAT services on Inmarsat and the maritime industry has been profound, says Bull. “While the penetration into Inmarsat’s market by VSAT operators was and remains small in terms of absolute numbers, VSAT has effectively cream-skimmed the customer base, taking the largest and most valuable users and dominating each of the segments it addresses,” he says. “Inmarsat is still used in the oil and gas rig and supply ship, cruise and ferry markets, but the vast majority of the traffic flows over stabilized C- and Ku-band VSAT systems.

“Inmarsat’s major advantages in the maritime market include its coverage, spectrum, [Global Maritime Distress Safety System] role, distribution and service networks, range of products, price of user equipment and, not least, the company’s established brand and name,” says Bull. “On the downside, the company is limited in terms of the amount of spectrum L-band affords it and this, in turn, means that bandwidth is relatively expensive when compared to [fixed satellite services] capacity. Consequently, Inmarsat’s services are mostly charged by volume — whether this is in minutes or megabits per second — and heavy volume users can face very large monthly bills as a result. Prior to the current liberalized broadband world, this was a limitation, but not a critical one as users the world over viewed communications as an expensive resource which should be used with discretion and control. However, the environment today is very different with high levels of connectivity and low prices available to the majority of the world’s population.”

Claude Rousseau, an analyst with NSR, agrees that Inmarsat faces some challenges. “There are some tough times ahead as they face increased competition from both L-band and VSAT services providers,” he says. “But Inmarsat has provided excellent service over the years and their customers are very loyal to their brand. In the maritime market, your customers tend to stay with you, and you shouldn’t discount the need for narrowband communications in the future, which is where Inmarsat excels. There are large number of vessels that only need limited voice, fax, and e-mail — traditional narrowband applications. Fishing vessels are good example. They don’t have deck space for a stabilized VSAT and their communication needs don’t justify the expense.”

There also is the possibility that Inmarsat may offer VSAT services in the future. In 2004, Inmarsat put forth a commercial framework agreement that all if its distribution partners signed. Earlier this year, Inmarsat signed an option to buy Stratos, one of its distribution partners, when the agreement expires in April. Stratos offers wideband VSAT services to the maritime industry and an acquisition may allow Inmarsat to expand beyond L-band services. There is speculation that Inmarsat could simply be rolling up their distribution partners to eliminate multiple levels of markup on its services and could sell off the broadband division. Add to the mix a potentially hostile takeover attempt on Inmarsat by Harbinger Capital Holdings and the company’s future becomes very interesting.
Future Trends

The maritime industry’s appetite for satellite bandwidth will continue to grow in the future. Orbit, Furuno, Eutelsat and Speedcast jointly have announced the successful sea trial of a new global Ku-band VSAT service. During the trial, a cargo ship sailed from the Atlantic, to the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, into the Red Sea and across the Indian Ocean, finally stopping at a port off the Sea of Japan. Throughout its journey, the ship has communications supplied by ubiquitous Ku-band coverage. Marketing plans for the service are expected to be announced soon.

Another trend is larger bandwidths at the high end of the market. Sea Tel currently supports 120-watt solid state power amplifiers but has multiple requests from clients to support antennas which will support 250-watt amplifiers. This anecdotal evidence, combined with land-based bandwidth consumption trends, suggests demand for larger chunks of bandwidth.

In addition to organic growth, there are new maritime regulations coming which will increase demand. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which operates under the United Nations Charter, has mandated that by 2012 all seagoing vessels be required to have an electronic charting display information system to replace the paper charts used for navigation today. The charts indicate the location of buoys and the depth of the sea floor, but oceans are dynamic and by the time paper charts arrive on a ship, they often are six week out of date. The electronic charting systems use satellite services to download up-to-date charts.

The demand for satellite services in the maritime industry is growing at a double-digit rate and demand is expected to continue in this range for the next several years. There are now a significant number of service providers with annual revenues between $200 million and $600 million. Which company will hit the billion dollar milestone first? (source: satellitetoday.com)

The new rules, however, only address sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions from the same ships remain a major, and often overlooked, contributor to global warming.

The world’s shipping fleet comprises 300,000 ships, each a city block in length, and transports 90 percent of the world’s trade. In 2007, the fleet emitted nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as all of America’s cars combined. If the fleet were a country, it’d be ranked as the sixth largest producer of CO2, between Japan and Germany.

Not to mention that these ships use the dirtiest fuel available, creating a high percentage of unusable sludge that must be burned.

All in all, cargo ships are a major contributor to global warming, producing great amounts of the carbon dioxide that not only warms the planet but also leads to ocean acidification. The ships also generate black carbon, or soot, which is acutely dangerous to the Arctic. This particulate matter attaches itself to ice, causing the sun’s rays to be absorbed rather than deflected, melting the ice at an ever-faster rate. Faster-melting ice means more passable waters for ships in the Arctic, which means more black carbon, which means faster-melting ice …

No wonder the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet.

The International Marine Organization’s new rules would begin to cut ships’ sulfur oxide emissions in coastal areas by 2015. But there is one way that cargo ships could easily and instantly reduce their carbon footprint: simply slowing down.

• The IMO has calculated that a speed reduction of just 10 percent by 2010 would result in a 23.3 percent reduction in emissions;
• One shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd, found that slowing ships by 20 percent reduced fuel costs by half;
• Slower cargo ships are roughly 10 times more fuel efficient than trucks and a hundred times more efficient than air transport — but as ship speeds increase, that advantage is wiped out.

In addition, shutting off ship engines in port — in other words, not idling a vehicle equivalent to 2,000 diesel trucks — would significantly reduce emissions. Better ship design that cuts water resistance is a technology that exists and that isn’t yet in common use. And, of course, there’s the dramatic — and not that far-fetched — concept of using kites to save fuel. These are all steps that could be taken much sooner than 2015.

The IMO’s new rules will reduce coastal emissions and protect public health, but they don’t begin to address the larger problem of ship emissions and global warming. The IMO has yet to demonstrate that it has the capacity to tackle this issue. In the meantime, the EPA should take up the slack. And if it doesn’t, well, I know of some conservationists who are already knocking on the EPA’s door (source: http://gristmill.grist.org/).

The centre will serve Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire.

Eight years ago, at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Conference on Search and Rescue and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System held in Florence, Italy, Liberia was selected to host the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) for the five countries.

A multilateral agreement for the center was signed in 2007 by and between the governments of the five countries.

European unions are gathering in Brussels to lobby for increased employment for EU seafarers, standardized working conditions, and against replacement of crew from cheaper labor.

This demonstration is part of a long term campaign and its affiliated unions for a fundamental review of employment for those that are active in the EU maritime sector.

Two days later, October 16, there will be a public seminar at the European Parliament. European commissioners, IMO/ILO representatives, ship owners, ETF members, and other stakeholders are coming together to examine the social dimension of the EU maritime policy.

Philippe Alfonso, ETF Maritime Political Secretary commented: “We need to reverse the decline in the number of EU seafarers and young people entering into a maritime profession. There is no evidence to substantiate that young EU nationals do not wish to seek a maritime career. By providing good living and working conditions and attractive remunerations, the industry can avoid a shortage of skilled personnel”.

He continued: “There is an urgent need to put an end to the discrimination between Seafarers working on board the same vessel on grounds of nationality and/or place of residence. Moreover, European seafarers should no longer be excluded from the EU social and labor legislation applying to other sectors. We are seeking to ensure that their rights are the same as those enjoyed by EU citizens on land.

The ETF hopes that European policy makers are open to the Charter for European Seafarers and for a sustainable maritime industry. The Charters goals are:

• more employment opportunities;
• no social dumping and race to the bottom in salaries;
• equal rights;
• more regulation in the maritime sector including the so-called ‘Manning Directive’;
• safe employment conditions;
• right for social security;
• state pension entitlements.

For more details of the Brussels events and ETF campaign please contact:

Philippe Alfonso, Political Secretary, Maritime Transport, Dockers and Fisheries, ETF.

Tel: +32 (0)2 285 45 84.

Email: p.alfonso@etf-europe.org

ThinkMaritime!