The shipping industry is wrestling with one of its largest challenges

The shipping manufacture is contending with a worldwide shortage of seafarers, and it's fueling a troubling premix of fake resumes, accidents astatine sea, and elevated freight rates.

"We person been seeing a accordant shortage of seafarers," Rhett Harris, elder manning expert astatine Drewry, told CNBC. Though the fig of vessels has successful caller years risen "exponentially" successful the thousands per year, the manpower maturation needed for those ships has not kept pace, helium said.

"Companies person to employment seafarers with little acquisition than they would ideally like," added Harris, who noted that those successful the higher ranks, and engineers successful particular, are successful shorter proviso than platform officers. 

Houthi attacks successful the Red Sea and the ongoing Russian-Ukraine struggle person resulted successful a knock-on effect connected the availability of skilled seafarers, experts told CNBC.

"Both Ukraine and Russia had supplied a batch of nonrecreational seafarers. However, the struggle betwixt Ukraine and Russia has so reduced the proviso of seafarers from some countries, arsenic they're facing wide labour shortages owed to the war," said Daejin Lee, planetary caput of probe astatine FertiStream.

The Philippines, China, Russia, Ukraine and Indonesia are the largest suppliers of the world's seafarers, according to the astir caller seafarer workforce breakdown study by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and BIMCO successful 2021.

Before Russia's penetration of Ukraine successful February 2022, Russian and Ukrainian seafarers made up astir 15% of the planetary shipping workforce, ICS information showed.

ICS expects a shortfall of 90,000 trained seafarers by 2026, ICS told CNBC via email. "Policymakers request to make nationalist strategies to code the seafarer shortage," the shipping enactment said.

"It is captious that we actively enlistee a much divers workforce if we are to conscionable the shortfall of seafarers needed to support the manufacture thriving, it is 1 of the biggest challenges our manufacture is facing astatine the moment," said ICS.

Geopolitical events person besides created much dangers astatine oversea arsenic the Iran-backed Houthi militant radical continues to people vessels successful the Red Sea, making the relation little attractive, ICS added.

Existing maritime unit are besides opting for much shore-based jobs alternatively than going retired to sea, said Henrik Jensen, CEO of Danica Crewing Specialists Group, an planetary maritime recruitment and manning services company. On apical of that, the dwindling entreaty of seafaring to younger generations whitethorn beryllium the nail successful the coffin for the vocation.

"In the past, seafarers' salaries were precocious capable to marque it a financially appealing option. But nowadays, younger radical are prioritizing work-life equilibrium and aren't arsenic consenting to perpetrate to a vocation that requires agelong stretches distant from home," said FertiStream's Lee.

For those who grew up with the net and phones astatine their fingertips, a beingness astatine oversea without changeless connectivity whitethorn not beryllium ideal, said Drewry's Harris. 

As a result, much companies are trying to pull the younger procreation with amusement and gym facilities connected board, arsenic good arsenic shorter voyages ranging from 2 to 4 months, helium observed. 

The seafarer proviso compression has led to companies offering higher salaries to gully successful endowment from a constricted pool, but besides applicants who effort their luck astatine vacancies they are not qualified for — by submitting embellished CVs — and getting connected committee with them, said manufacture experts CNBC spoke to.

Fake resumes person go much prevalent successful the manufacture since the shortage, the analysts said, with an expanding fig of seafarers fabricating experiences connected vessels and clip retired astatine sea.

"There are a batch of radical who are polishing their CVs to get higher ranks and higher salaries," said Jensen, who discovered thousands of specified embellished resumes aft trying to corroborate said experiences with the seafarers' erstwhile employers. 

And those connected committee are paying the price.

"There's a shortage, a immense shortage … It is affecting me. I americium not getting suitable radical [for my crew]," said a skipper successful a planetary shipping company, who requested that CNBC not usage his sanction retired of fearfulness of reprisal from their company.

"The modular of seafarers is going down. Because present they conscionable request anybody with a license," the skipper said, adding that helium has had to occurrence much seafarers of precocious whose competence had been called into question. 

Existing seafarers besides needed to beryllium retired astatine oversea for longer, back-to-back durations, with less radical disposable to bash so. The fatigue and intelligence strain that arises tin effect successful compromised intelligence wellness for immoderate — and adjacent accidents connected board.

The information of ships and the unit tin beryllium compromised due to the fact that of a cocktail premix of inexperience, deficiency of due attraction and fatigue, said Subhangshu Dutt, enforcement manager of Om Maritime.

In a 2024 survey by the World Maritime University, implicit 93% of 9,214 of the seafarers surveyed noted that fatigue is the astir communal safety-related situation connected board. About 78% study not having a afloat time disconnected passim the entirety of a declaration period, which tin past for months. 

Ocean shipping is an integral portion of the world's proviso concatenation — more than 80% of planetary commercialized volume is carried by sea, according to the U.N. Trade and Development organization.

Lack of unit could besides disrupt proviso chains, arsenic ships whitethorn beryllium held up successful ports, Dutt said.

"This is so 1 of the biggest challenges for the industry," said Lee.