As 2021 draws to a close and we anticipate 2022, here is a New Year message from our Managing Director, Henrik Jensen
“ Most of us want to put 2021 behind us and move into a new year where we will hopefully see an end to the struggling brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
For Danica the year 2021 has been the most difficult years ever, but also one of our most successful.
Our seafarers have continued to perform their duties under difficult circumstances, despite at times being long overdue relief, with no shore leave, facing risks during transit, and having to be in contact with many persons in ports around the world.
The crew change crisis and pandemic travel restrictions put unprecedented pressure on the Eastern European seafarer employment market because our crews were seen as a solution and therefore much sought after. Eastern European seafarers have unrestricted access to vaccines and relatively few travel restrictions imposed on them compared to their Asian peers. The large surplus of seafaring vacancies around the globe created a huge turnover as seafarers switched jobs to enjoy offers with higher salaries, promotions or joining dates which better-suited their personal plans.
Many of the shipping companies we work for, as well as new clients, turned to Danica for replacements of their Asian crews who could not travel out. We are pleased we were able to assist and, so far this year, Danica has recruited 535 additional Eastern European seafarers.
We are also pleased to report that we have been able to bring all our long overdue seafarers safely home and today we ‘only’ have relatively short overruns with plans in place to solve every case.
In total we have carried out 4,594 crew changes in 2021. Our crew logistic team has become very experienced in the required Covid-19 precautions and travel restrictions around the world. Our clients have benefited from Danica sharing this knowledge, not only to identify where crew changes are possible within a vessel’s trading area, but also to advise on how it can be done in the most economical way.
Although the new omicron variant casts new doubt as to when the crew change crisis will end, we are closing 2021 in a much better position to deal with the situation, thanks to the experience we have gained. Many countries are now allowing seafarers to pass through and, thankfully, all our seafarers have access to vaccines in their home countries.
All this makes us cautiously optimistic that 2022 will be a better year for our crews, clients and the shipping industry.
I wish you a happy festive season and a safe and successful 2022. ”
Henrik Jensen, Managing Director, Danica Crewing Specialists
