Hamburg, – Trusteddocks (www.trusteddocks.com), the innovative shipyards matchmaking platform for shipping companies and dock operators, today pointed to future issues following the eventual recovery of the world economy and pick-up of international trade: “Our Ship Repair Index (SRI) predicts a very competitive market once activities fully resume,” said Carsten Bullemer, founder and CEO. “A backlog demand has resulted from the dramatic fall in shipyard activities over the first half of the year, and this will cause capacity shortages in the coming months.”
For a few years now already, Trusteddocks’ Ship Repair Index (SRI) has continuously monitored all movements in and out of the largest shipyards worldwide and published them on the website www.trusteddocks.com/sri on a weekly basis, organized both globally and by region. These selected “Blue Chips” – “the Dow Jones of the shipyard industry” (Bullemer) – are scattered around the world, giving a very precise “live” picture of all on-going activities involving ship repairs, refits, and class renewals.
This market intelligence allows all interested parties to measure the shipyards industry and to follow flows in demand and supply, enabling shipping companies’ management to make informed, fact-based decisions on docking requirements. At the same time, it allows the individual shipyards to benchmark themselves against their competitors and adjust their business strategies accordingly. Last but not least, it creates market transparency and gives investors and shareholders robust insights into the industry.
Both shipping companies and shipyards have been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as world trade imploded and universally imposed social distancing restrictions additionally made their operations, even pared down to the minimum as they were, very difficult to maintain. But now, as the strict lockdowns are being lifted and economic activities can resume, the Trusteddocks Ship Repair Index (SRI) begins to reflect a recovery.
In the wake of this unprecedented crisis, Bullemer expects difficulties especially in the area of Class Renewals and scrubber refits: “A lot of ships will now need to be docked, and you don’t need a crystal ball to foresee that, bottom line, shipyard prices can only go up.”
