THE problem with an industry like shipping, where epoch shifts have been navigated before and corporate memory predates the birth of countries, is that zen-like composure in the face of crises can often be misread as blasé indifference.

If you are in shipping, it’s in your DNA to adapt to challenges and adapt to crises, explained German Shipowners’ Association president Gaby Bornheim earlier this week, as she fielded yet another barrage of questions on geopolitical turmoil at this year’s Nor-Shipping.

“Agility is the new currency for shipping. We have to adapt to all these challenges,” she insisted, stoically summing up several hours of verbose pontificating from her peers on stage in a single, succinct sentence.

Volatility is the lifeblood of profitable shipping and certainty has never been a prerequisite for making decisions. So, why complain about exogenous shocks now?

On stage, the message was defiant: shipowners paralysed by the geopolitical swings risk losing out. A revolving cast of forthright industry leaders pointed out that in times of “geopolitics on steroids”, doing nothing is not a viable option.

Off stage, their commitment to specific questions of progress and investment was generally more hesitant.

Lloyd’s List ran a poll in advance of Nor-Shipping this year, and it seems when answering anonymously, the industry is more inclined to admit its indecision in the face of uncertainty.

The big beasts may be confident about moving ahead, but the squeezed middle of shipping finds itself unable, unwilling, or unsure of how to progress amid overwhelming complexity.

More than two thirds of you concede that the ‘average’ shipping company is not equipped with sufficient expertise to navigate regulatory compliance over the next five years.

No shipowner would admit themselves to be average — their egos would not allow it — but it rather confirms the suspicion that there is a worrying gap there to be filled.

No doubt shipping will sail through the immediate complexities and, if there is a profit to be turned in a new world order of superpower rivalry and “conflictual coexistence” between the US and China, the maritime sector will find it.

But that doesn’t mean the industry is not genuinely worried about the pace of change ahead.

“This is shipping,” said industry veteran Jeff Pribor. “It is always going to be hard… you just have to get on with it.”

Or, as the stoic Marcus Aurelius (almost) once noted: “Waste no more time arguing what a good shipowner should be. Be one.”

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List 

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