Ship Operating Costs Continue to Rise

OpCost 2007, Moore Stephens unique ship operating cost benchmark, reveals that all vessel categories covered by the report experienced an annual average increase of 8.5 per cent in total operating costs in 2006, the financial year covered by the survey, and that, generally, the increases were more marked than in the previous year. The OpCost bulker index increased by thirteen index points (10.7 per cent) on a year-on-year basis, with handymax bulkers recording the biggest increase (14.8 per cent) in 2006. The tanker index, meanwhile, experienced an index rise of twelve points (9.1 per cent). For the first time this year, OpCost includes a container ship index. This, using 2002 as its base year, showed a rise of thirteen index points (10.8 per cent) in operating costs in 2006. While expenditure on repairs and maintenance was up by an average of 9.7 per cent across all vessel categories, the biggest percentage increase - a hefty twenty per cent - was recorded in respect of stores. Elsewhere, insurance and crew costs were down on the double-digit increases recorded in both categories in OpCost 2006, but still showed percentage rises of 7.9 and 7.6 respectively. Once again, there were wide variations between different vessel types in both categories.